


Lonely Hearts Club

by laisy_dazy



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: AU, Explicit Language, M/M, Multi, References to Drugs, Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2019-11-14 07:49:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 58,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18048518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laisy_dazy/pseuds/laisy_dazy
Summary: Sex, music, money, fuck ups, and maybe a little bit of love in between.





	1. Changmin

**Author's Note:**

> I have finally come around to posting this. This story has been cooking around my head for quite some time now.  
> Before anything else I'd like to say thank you to Yani who's helped me out on days I couldn't get the writing rolling out. A huge chunk of this fic is the way it is because of her help.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The door opens and he looks at the person coming in. It was his brother in a pinstripe suit, he’d already eyed both of them. Damn. His brother looked perfect in a well tailored suit.
> 
> "Yunho! You didn’t tell me you were coming!" Jaejoong loses focus from the guitar and greets him with a grin. Changmin is taken by by surprise.
> 
> "Oh. So you’ve met Changmin already?" His brother is casting a proud smile towards his direction.
> 
> A sinking feeling settles itself in Changmin’s gut. 
> 
> Yunho’s _someone_ was Jaejoong? This Jaejoong? 
> 
> Yunho’s grandmother would have a stroke.

"Ugh. Fuck. Please. More!" the pleas are accompanied by a creaking bed and low sensual moans.

A bang on the wall.

Changmin’s eyes shoot wide open.

Another bang, this time followed by a whimper.

"Are you shitting me right now?" Changmin mumbles with frustration under his breath. His head hurts. He’s got a hangover, and he hasn’t had proper sleep in weeks.

What did he do to deserve this?

"Fuck! Harder!"

He wonders if it was possible to make himself spontaneously combust, and disappear then and there. How many times did they have to have sex? As if falling asleep with the unsettling noises wasn’t hard enough last night, they had to have another go at it in the morning too. What round was this, three? Four?

He’s all for having fun, sex, woohoo!, but his roommate is a fucking asshole. Didn’t she have a place of her own, can’t they have fucked there instead?

"Oh yes!" the girl’s quivering low moan reaches his ears, and god it was sexy. She was sexy. Changmin feels his cock stir in his pants.

Fucking Cho Khyuhyun had to hook up with the girl he’s been practically in love with for two years. How could this have have happened? He loves his roommate, he really does, he’s his best friend, but right then he fantasises of punching him in the face. He’d be so happy to see that perfect nose of his bleed.

Victoria Song was supposed to be in his bed.

With the sounds she was making, it wasn’t hard for him to imagine, her long slender legs wrapped around him as he pounded into her, her moans against his ear rather than through a wall. Bet he could make her scream louder. He’d feel her hot breath and she’d call him by his—"Kyuhyun!"

Fuccccckkk. Changmin grabs a pillow and hides his head under it to muffle the goddamn noise.

He feels sick, and it’s not because of the hangover.

Out of all the women in Seoul why did it have to be Victoria?

Kyuhyun is a fucking asshole, he reiterates in his head, and he wonders if he should just go there and bust the door open. Make a scene, and then what? Kyuhyun would tell him to fuck off, and Victoria, god Victoria, would think he was a shit ass loser.

Another bang, louder this time. He can hear nails scratching through the thin wall.

Maybe he deserves this for being a little coward.

"Fuck this," Changmin gets up, grabs a pair of jeans, a tee shirt, and his phone and wallet.

When he leaves, he slams the door of his room shut and hopes the couple hears it.

 

* * *

 

The sunlight is too bright as it hits Changmin’s eyes and he hisses a curse. He didn’t really have anywhere to go and he wondered if getting drunk again was a wise cure for his hangover. Just right then his phone rings. He clicks his tongue at the name blinking on his screen. Yunho. He lets out a rather fond but exasperated sigh, "You know you could’ve just texted me instead of called right? People do that now."

He hears a chuckle from the other side. "You know I don’t like texting," The voice is cool and deep. "I just wanted to remind you. You remember? Lunch, yea?"

He totally forgot. "Yea. Of course, I remember." He lies. "Are you sure you want to come all the way here?"

"Yea. I’m sure."

"Okay. Whatever."

They talk for a little bit more before they hang up. Changmin decides to make his way to the bar they’re supposed to meet in, he’s early, three hours early, but he knows the place and he’s sure it’s open. He’s got nowhere to go and nothing to do, plus, he wants to drink down a beer, or five, before meeting his brother, half brother.

He finds himself staring at the faintly flickering neon sign across the bar table. "Why Not," it says in cursive. There’s an old jukebox in the corner that probably doesn’t work anymore, the flooring had the classic 50’s cheque. It’s a vintage bar having been established in the late 40’s as a diner. It’s been remodelled time and time again through the years, now it’s a quaint little hub that hosts some indie bands on scheduled nights, it’s the hot spot for kids these days.

At ten in the morning though, it’s practically dead, only illuminated by the light seeping out of the windows. He is only accompanied by the bar tender, and a band doing sound checks for that night’s gig.

Changmin lets out a soft lingering smile before taking a swig at his beer, their mother would like this place. He was pretty sure his brother didn’t really share their taste, which is why he was surprised when he called him up a few days ago to meet there. If he was being honest, he was surprised Yunho called to meet at all. They barely see each other these days.

His phone vibrates. It’s a message from Yunho. "There. A text. Just letting you know I might be a little late", he reads it. He laughs to himself, but doesn’t bother replying. Changmin had always been Yunho’s biggest confident and apparently, his brother is losing his mind over a certain someone and wanted to tell someone all about it.

It was quite odd for his sex god of a brother to ask him for relationship advice, but Changmin guesses even sex gods fuck up when it comes to relationships.

Yunho lived in the better side of Seoul. Where else would he be living? He was the heir of a growing law firm. The only thing Changmin was heir of was their mother’s online flower arrangement business that amounted to a net worth of probably a hundred bucks.

Yunho and Changmin only shared their mother’s blood.

Shim Sung Ryung never hid from her children that she was quite a rolling stone back in the day, sleeping around, travelling with a band, running away from home at 17. She was involved in a roller coaster romance and a shot gun wedding with a man from a very wealthy family, Jung Woosung. It only lasted for three years, but they bore a son, Jung Woo Sung’s only son, Yunho.

The marriage ended when Sung Ryung filed for divorce, their relationship no longer had love she said. Months later, she had fallen for a poet that sparked a flame she never felt before. Of course, she’s had many different flames over the years. That one flame however, resulted to no marriage, but a child, Changmin.

The divorce was a big conundrum, on the other hand, the rest of the Jung family was relieved it was all over. The Jung parents had all thought their precious son was blind sighted, and he is now free from the shackles of such an undeserving woman.

The Jungs acknowledged the divorce and Yunho, but apparently, Yunho is where they draw the line. They never recognised the existence of his half brother. Changmin was not a Jung after all.

Their mom was too proud to accept anything from the Jungs. The three of them moved to a county just right outside of Gwangju called Naju, it was their mother’s hometown. She raised them on her own, with her hard earned money.

Sungryung always worried about her sons and their situation, but neither of the boys had any resentment for her. She was a product of her generation. She’s been called rash, stupid even, but the siblings knew her best. She raised them well, full of love, they both knew that. In fact, she loved too much, was too much of a dreamer and in the end it just made both of them more protective of her.

Her boys grew up well and that, at least, for all the mistakes she thought she made in her youth, lets her sleep at night.

Yunho and Changmin were raised in full custody of Sung Ryung. But no matter how archaic the notion sounded, she didn’t want to rob Yunho of his birth right.

Yunho would get weekends with his father, summers, trips to Europe, and occasional packages with toys worth more than Sung Ryung’s one month salary. Yunho was too young to understand, too naive to refuse, he just wanted time with his father and no one could blame a kid for liking the shiny parcels with toys.

Yunho was a good big brother though, he would always share whatever he had and look out for Changmin. He always told him stories of his adventures and how he wished Changmin could’ve been there and how he’d bring him one day. Changmin appreciated that. Growing up he couldn’t ask for a better brother than Yunho.

Yunho was always so giving. Was it because of guilt? No, Changmin never thought that. His brother loved him.

Other than the lavish vacations and gifts, Yunho and Changmin lived a normal childhood in Naju. Afternoons consisted of climbing trees and biking around the neighbourhood. Nights were filled with sneaking out way past bedtime to watch Steven Spielberg VCRs. Shared beds, scraped knees, giggling over inside jokes, running away from an angry mother for doing the naughtiest pranks, those were the memories Changmin had of his childhood.

It wasn’t until college when the Jungs strongly insisted—by strongly insisted, they wouldn’t take no for an answer— on the condition that Yunho go to a top university in Seoul that the two felt the gravity of the difference between their lives, future lives.

Yunho refused to go until he got his family to promise that if he was going to Seoul for university, Changmin would have to go too. Changmin arrived a year later, but quit only after one semester. He knew he could never fit in.

That was the first big fight Changmin ever had with his brother.

_ "I stuck my neck out for you, and you quit? Are you fucking crazy? Do you know how much the tuition costs, not to mention student housing? Graduating from this university will open up so many opportunities for you! Do you think mom raised us to be quitters? You disappoint me, Changmin." _

_ "You’re in no position to be disappointed! I never asked you to do this for me!" _

The memory reverberates in Changmin’s head. It was not his fault he did not have the passionate Jung blood in him. He was a Shim. He liked music, taking photographs, hitting up an occasional joint.

His thoughts are distracted when he hears a rather loud bang from the small stage. He immediately averts his gaze. By that time, there was no one else but an ash colour haired guy struggling to set the amp straight. By instinct Changmin gets up to help and as he helps lift the amp, beautiful lined eyes meet his.

His breath hitches and he almost drops the heavy object.

"Wow," he lets out a whisper.

"Changmin?" He hears but it doesn’t quite register in his head.

"Changmin? Shim Changmin?"

He blinks, and suddenly the beautiful eyes were no longer just beautiful eyes, but familiar beautiful eyes.

The amp is well placed on the floor and long forgotten. He gazes at the red puffy lips, the pale skin along his collar bone jutting from the loose black shirt.

"It’s me, Jaejoong," and there it is, a smile that can light up the whole room.

He blinks again.

"Kim Jaejoong. From Naju," he hears him talk again.

Jaejoong? Snotty Jaejoong? This was snotty Jaejoong? Snotty Jaejoong who would always fall over random rocks when they played after school?

Changmin makes a mental note to check up on his other childhood friends. He wonders if anyone else turned into some supernaturally beautiful cock tease.

"Oh. I’m sorry, I must’ve gotten the wrong guy, I—"

"No. No. I mean. Yea. Snotty Jaejoong yea, I remember you," he finally finds his voice, but then realises his spoke out his thoughts way too honestly. "I mean, yea. Kim Jaejoong, you guys owned that small grocery."

Jaejoong nods with a smile. "What a strange coincidence. How have you been?" Changmin doesn’t miss the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

 

* * *

 

It takes them three beers and a trip down memory lane, before both find themselves sitting on the stools on stage. Changmin had already forgotten his disaster of a morning thanks to his current companion.

"Why do you look so nervous? You said you played!" Jaejoong says. They were mirroring each other, guitars on each hand.

Changmin is a little bit distracted by the G-clef on Jaejoong’s hand as he holds onto the neck of his guitar. So Jaejoong turned out to become a musician, his mind idles. "Yea, yea. I mean, I’ve messed around at home, by myself, I’ve never really played with anyone."

"That’s alright. No one’s here. Except Heech over there," he nods his head to the bartender. "So, what do you play?"

"Uhm. I’m into 60’s and 70’s rock actually. I never really grew out of the records mom had lying around at home."

"Nice! Hey, what was that Beatles song your mom always played in your pie booth during the school fair?"

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

"Can you play it?"

"Of course," Changmin is almost offended. It’s one of his all time favourite songs.

"Great. Are you more comfortable with rhythms or lead?"

"I’ll play George’s part."

"Ha!" Jaejoong gives a thumbs up, and the sexiest wink Changmin has seen, "I only know John’s rhythms"

Changmin smiles at that. A perfect fit. "Okay in 3..2..1"

He starts playing the iconic intro and gets in up to six notes when the door chime rings.

The door opens and he looks at the person coming in. It’s his brother in a pinstripe suit, he’d already eyed both of them. 

Damn, Yunho looked perfect in a well tailored suit.

"Yunho! You didn’t tell me you were coming!" Jaejoong loses focus from the guitar and greets him with a grin. Changmin is taken by surprise.

"Oh. So you’ve met Changmin already?" His brother is casting a proud smile towards his direction.

A sinking feeling settles itself in Changmin’s gut.

Yunho’s  _someone_  was Jaejoong? This Jaejoong?

Yunho’s grandmother would have a stroke.

 

* * *

 

It makes sense now, why Yunho would go all the way to this place. This was where Jaejoong hung out.

All three of them are seated in a booth with Yunho and Jaejoong sitting one side and Changmin sitting across.

Changmin wonders how the hell he ended up talking to Jaejoong for the past two hours and not once had the fact that he and his brother were dating ever come up.

Both siblings have never had discretions when it came to dating whatever gender. They were very much open about it growing up, that’s what you get when you’re raised by a somewhat hippie mother who was an advocate of the sexual revolution.

Changmin could see why Yunho would fall for an old friend from childhood. Though he finds it a little odd, because in the recent years Yunho had only been dating women since he started reconnecting with the Jung side of his family.

This just opens up a can of worms.

Changmin can already hear it _._

_ Like father like son. _

_ Is he really dating a man? _

_ He has tattoos? _

_ What does he do for a living? My god. A musician?! He might as well date a homeless person! _

Changmin has only met Yunho’s grandmother and stepmother once in his life, but the impression left is strong. He’s always admired Yunho for being able to keep up with them.

He’s taken away from his thoughts by the story Jaejoong is telling them about that one time he almost set his kitchen on fire, and he sees the adoring way Yunho looks at him. He’s just glad his brother is happy. Kind of.

 

* * *

 

The sun is already setting when they get into Yunho’s Audi.

Changmin is strapping his seatbelt when Yunho asks, "So what do you think?"

"Fuck Yunho. I think Jaejoong is fucking hot," Changmin breathes out as he leans his head onto the back of his seat and closes his eyes. It earns him an annoyed look from his brother. Changmin feels his ear being pinched and twisted tightly, "Ouch!"

"Are you attracted for the guy I’m sleeping with?"

Changmin swats his older brother’s hand and rubs his ear "Jesus. You can’t blame me for a natural response, hyung. He’s fucking attractive."

Yunho breaks into laugh that turns into a proud smile. "That, he is." He finally gently rubs the ear he previously assaulted. "But I’m not sharing"

His hands gets swatted off again, his brother scoffs in response. "You’re a damn lucky guy, Jung," He always calls his brother by his last name when he wants to be cheeky.

Changmin finds himself looking out the window. He’s never been spiteful of their situation. It is what it is.

Sure, it would be nice to have gone to France or whatever during some summers, but Yunho’s life wasn’t something he was jealous of. There are moments though, fleeting moments where he feels a dull ache in his chest. Moments like this, sitting in his brother’s expensive car after meeting the guy he’s going out with, who, also happens to be one of the most gorgeous people on the planet. Sitting there, on the way home to a shared apartment where his roommate is probably still having a fuckathon with a girl he’s wanted to ask out for years. Moments like this, he thinks, Yunho is really lucky. Really god damn lucky.


	2. Yunho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yunho grunts as he picks up the leather suitcase on the seat beside him, and steps out of his car and walks to the elevator. There are about seven people waiting by it. The men who’d been engaged in light conversation stop and greet him when he enters their line of sight. They bow almost simultaneously, only earning a small nod from the Jung heir. The small crowd parts as if to welcome him in. No one mentions anything but a low "good morning", no one dares to stand too close to him.

"I’m telling you hyung, mom and I were in a video call, and I just noticed the incense behind her starting to catch fire on the drapes. She didn’t believe me and I practically had to threaten her to finally get her to turn around and see the growing fire!"

Yunho is laughing his ass off at his brother’s story, he could totally see his mother acting that way. "God she must’ve drank one of those hallucinogenic teas she brewed up herself."

"I swear to god, the next time I go home, I am going to empty her fucking cupboards, those things are the worst. And speaking of which—"

Changmin’s voice dies as Yunho slows down his car along the curb of his apartment. Outside stood Khyuhyun and a tall woman, arms wrapped around each other. He dips in for a kiss and neither siblings miss the way his hands squeezes her ass.

Changmin falls silent and Yunho immediately turns to him, catching the mix of irritation and anguish in his face as he stares at intently at the couple standing few meters in front of them.

"I haven’t seen Khyuhyun in a long time. Is that his girlfriend?" the older treads the conversation carefully.

Changmin rolls his eyes. "Not really. No, that’s…" he heaves a sigh before continuing, "…that’s Victoria."

Yunho has had enough late night conversations with Changmin to be taken aback, "The fuck? You call that a best friend? Why would date the girl you like?"

"Nah. He doesn’t even know."

"Man, you have it hard don’t you? I’ve never seen you have trouble with a girl before."

Yunho only hears a groan.

His quickly turning miserable brother makes a move to unbuckle his seatbelt and get off the car, but Yunho stops him, "Hey" Changmin turns to him, "Do you want to come over to my place? We rarely meet and I bet mom would love a call from us."

Changmin knows this is only his brother trying to save his ass from the pathetic reality of having to come home to an apartment that reeked of sex between his best friend and the girl he was head over heels over. He didn’t like being rescued, but truth be told, he would rather light his scrotum on fire than to go back home. Heading to Yunho’s place would be way nicer.

"Thanks, hyung" he says. He doesn’t have to say anything else for Yunho to understand what he meant.

 

* * *

 

Yunho has never had Changmin over his place since he moved. It was a penthouse overlooking Apgujeong, a wide bachelor pad, probably thrice as big as his brother’s. It has wooden floors, minimal furniture save for a few paintings on the wall, and a spacey kitchen that he never actually uses.

"Damn. Hyung. This looks like it popped out of a page of Home Design magazine," he hears Changmin as he looks around the living room area.

None of it were were based off Yunho’s preferences. It was cookie cutter bachelor pad for rich young men. His cousin knew a big shot interior designer, and one day he just arrived—the next thing Yunho knew, everything was already in place, with no leeway for change. It was so different from their home back in Naju that was filled with their mom’s memorabilia from her travels, the artwork they did as kids, and mixed unmatched furniture that had been bought at several points of their lives depending on what they could afford at that time.

Yunho’s lived in his penthouse for quite some time but he can’t find himself to comfortably call it home yet.

At least Changmin liked it.

"If you like it, you can always move in with me you know."

"No fucking way. I’ll never be able to pay even half your rent."

Yunho sighs, "How many times do I have to tell you, money is not an issue?"

Changmin sits up, his tone changing. "We’ve talked about this. I don’t like asking things from you. I can live independently."

Yunho will never understand why Changmin always refuses him. Changmin will never understand why Yunho feels the need to give him things he doesn’t even ask for.

They both silently agree not to hash it out.

"Hey, chicken and tteokkbokki delivery for dinner?" Yunho says, as he grabs the phone and dials the delivery service.

"Hell yea!" was his brother’s immediate reply. He doesn’t need to look to know that Changmin has a big grin plastered on his face. Nothing cheers him up like food.

"Oh and get a beer from the alcohol freezer," Yunho says while waiting for the pick up.

"You have a fucking freezer just for booze?" Yunho only shakes his head and laughs.

Changmin comes back, with not only a six pack of beer, he’s got soju, some scotch, and a bottle of wine. Yunho doesn’t mention how expensive some of the drinks he’s holding is. Changmin would’ve never agreed to drink them if he did.

Later that night, there are empty bottles of alcohol on the floor and boxes of chicken sprawled over the coffee table.

Yunho is lying on the floor, with his legs leaning up against the couch so his body looks like a lazy L. His suit jacket is long lost, shirt buttons undone and his socks are thrown somewhere across the room. Changmin is sitting on the floor beside him, leaning agains the couch, looking like a reverse L against the form of his brother. They are absolutely stuffed.

Changmin groans, and let’s out a loud burp, "I’m so full," Yunho only hums in response.

Despite what he just said, Changmin grabs another another piece of teokkbokki with his chopsticks and puts it in his mouth. "You know what, maybe I’ll just live here with you." Changmin burps again, before putting another piece of teokkbokki in his mouth, when he misses and smudges the sauce on his cheek, Yunho knows he’s a bit drunk. "I don’t think I can go back home and not punch Kyuhyun in the balls every time I see his face."

"I can’t believe your best friend is fucking the girl you’ve been eyeing for years."

Changmin’s face sours, and Yunho becomes a little bit more serious.

"How come you never told me about this?"

"Uhh. It’s not like we’ve been having quality sibling time lately? And, I was trying not to think about that! Why did you have to bring it up again?"

"You’ve got to face it sooner or later. You have to tell at least Kyuhyun about this,  even as a room mate. It doesn’t have to be a love confession or anything, tell them you’re not comfortable."

"God hyung, can we stop. I don’t need this rehashed in my brain." Changmin sits up, irritated. "Fucking girls. You know what? I’m going to get myself a hot boyfriend like Jaejoong."

"No one’s like Jaejoong," Yunho smiles at his words.

"You’re fucking weird. You were the one who drunk dialled me and told me you were going crazy, then you practically introduced him to me as if you weren’t a mess about him a few nights before, and you two seem fine, and you won’t elaborate. What was the point of having me meet up with you? Can’t imagine anything going wrong with him." he rolls his eyes.

Yunho looks a bit taken off guard by his questioning brother, he opens his mouth and closes it. "I—just. You know, never mind. That. No, nothing. I guess I was just in a weird mood last time and hey, we already set a date and I didn’t want to cancel on my baby brother," he twists Changmin’s ears for the second time that day, and his younger brother yells, taking his hand and pulling Yunho to the floor, reminiscent of their playful brawls as children.

At 4 am Yunho is back on his laptop. The sun hasn’t even risen yet and he already has a list of people to scold for the errors on the contract drafts that he’s looking at.

He needs to sleep.

Maybe drinking with Changmin up until late wasn’t that good of an idea.

He takes a look at his brother who is tucking himself on his side, a leg draped around his thighs, fully asleep, mouth wide open. He closes his little brother’s mouth shut, only to be met with an undistinguishable irritated murmur. Fast asleep but still cranky as ever.

Yunho laughs to himself and makes up his mind that it was a good idea.

He’s going to be a fucking testy, snappy lawyer at work the next day though.

 

* * *

 

Yunho yawns as he pulls up his black R8 in his parking his slot where there is sign with a big fat "Jung, Y." written by the end of it. No one else parks there. Not even on his off days.

He’s had about half an hour of sleep and he realises he might have forgotten to turn the heater off at home, he thinks to call Changmin, but if he knows anything about his brother, he probably won’t be awake until hours later. The brat can wake up sweating, it won’t kill him.

He takes about a few minutes to look at his schedule. He’s already not looking forward to the day ahead. It’s packed but he still needs to fit in a scolding session for the fuckwits who messed up the contract drafts.

Yunho grunts as he picks up the leather suitcase on the seat beside him, and steps out of his car and walks to the elevator. There are about seven people waiting by it. The men who’d been engaged in light conversation stop and greet him when he enters their line of sight. They bow almost simultaneously, only earning a small nod from the Jung heir. The small crowd parts as if to welcome him in. No one mentions anything but a low "good morning", no one dares to stand too close to him.

Yunho, for the life of him, cannot remember their names, he’s met them before that’s for sure, probably from some other department which name he can’t remember either, none of them are significant enough for him to note.

When the elevator arrives Yunho steps in, no one else does.

It’s an unspoken rule that no one rides the elevator with the son of the owner of the building, and in all honesty, Yunho likes it that way. Private.

When the lift stops from the parking basement to the lobby, there’s an even bigger crowd waiting, it’s the morning rush and the tension from seeing the lone passenger of the elevator is felt. No one makes a move to get in, a few bow politely.

One guy has sweat marks on his pits, obviously late for something, makes the mistake of stepping in without looking, but he notices who’s inside. His eyes and Yunho’s meet for a second, and Yunho could swear the man was cursing his own luck, nevertheless the lowly employee gives an apology. Yunho doesn't even acknowledge it.

Yunho wonders how important his attendance must be for him to sweat profusely like that, he almost offers the elevator. Almost.

The door starts closing in and there’s a voice "Wait up!" a tall and handsome man in a black Armani suit rushes in, making his way through the waiting set of people. They give him way, the same way they did for Yunho, he makes it just in time.

He blocks the door with his hand and it automatically opens before he steps in. "Damn, Yunho, could’ve pressed the open button for me.

"Sorry, slow reflexes, didn’t get much sleep."

"Some people in this building already look horrible, it’s only 8 am. Did you see that sweaty dude?" he remarks, but then his eyes widen when he catches view of Yunho’s face. "Oh well, you look like shit too."

Choi Siwon.

He is only allowed in the elevator with him because he’s the heir one of the top entertainment companies in Seoul. He’s worth just about as much as Yunho. An average lawyer, though lazy sometimes, but he gets his job done when he needs to. Typical rich kid who doesn’t feel the pressure to do well because there’s always the family fortune to fall back to. Yunho’s always wondered why he’d taken up law and applied for the Jung Firm when his own folks ran an entertainment company. He could’ve easily gotten a high rolling seat there. 

Yunho has known Siwon since college, they were roommates at one point. He likes to party, gets all the girls, grew up in Seoul, had a Ferrari when he was 16. Unlike Yunho, he didn’t know what it felt like to live a normal life.

But he was nice. Siwon is arguably Yunho’s closest friend among his colleagues.

"You’d have better been up all night fucking for your shitface to be worth it."

Yunho shakes his head. "I was looking over some of the documents that were just sent in last night, what’s his face and his team messed things up again. Sunny better have my 5 shots of espresso waiting for me." Yunho says, watching the numbers of the floors they pass.

His companion clicks his tongue. "Jung, five shots? Are you trying to kill yourself?" Siwon shakes his head and gives him a hard pat on the back. "Just take an upper like a normal person, will you?"

Yunho only laughs, but his gaze follows his companion’s hand as he reaches in his pants pocket. "Seriously. Take this." Siwon hands him a small pill case.

He nods and pockets the drug.

The elevator door opens and the two of them walk out.

There is another set of people who greet Yunho as he walks to his office but they’re all a blur to him except for his assistant.

"Good morning," his assistant greets him with a big smile, the cheerful voice breaks the monotony of greetings he’s been hearing all morning it. Her nickname is Sunny, and Yunho thinks it fits her well. He hired her because he sometimes needs a drop of sunshine in the work place, but even her positive disposition doesn’t brighten him up that morning. "Your Americano with five shots of—"

"Sunny, get me whoever’s responsible for this." He drops a folder on his assistant’s desk, his straight face keeping her from engaging in any more conversation. She knows that look, and she knows her boss doesn’t have time for any bullshit.

"I’m on it." Sunny notes her task. "You have a case briefing at 9, and you wanted time to prep before that right? Should I send the guys in before your case briefing or do you still want that prep time?" He heaves a breath, "Yea, no…I can compress my prep time. Send them in, this fuck up can’t bite us in the ass later."

Sunny watches as his boss marches to his office.

Yunho sits behind his table, he knows the day ahead of him is going to be hectic, but it’s not like he’s not used to it. There’s a mug in front of him and thank god she’s already prepared warm coffee.

He thinks twice about grabbing it, remembering the pill sitting in his pocket. He takes it out to look at it. The case itself is yellow, no label and there is nothing else but an orange little oval inside it.

He doesn’t know what it is, adderall probably, a lot of the guys take that. It would totally work better than coffee.

He taps his fingers on his red wood desk.

Tap tap tap.

He could actually use some adderall right now. Adderall is meant to help with focus, isn’t it?

He open’s the top of the translucent yellow case and his mind goes back to the time he’s first seen a similar item. He was fifteen, at one of the summer camps his father always pay for.

Drugs weren’t that big of a surprise. The teenagers at camp didn’t care. They wanted to experiment and they could. They were kids who had money to blow, kids whose parents wouldn’t notice if they were missing a pill or two from their own stash, kids who, even young as they are, had enough connections to know who carry them. They had enough time on their hands to take them. They were kids who were trying to grow up faster than they should because normal teenage things were boring, and as kids who’d been handed everything on a silver platter since they were born, they never had to think about consequences.

 _"Take it, it’ll make you feel better,"_ Yunho recalls his cabin roommate from one particularly dark evening, everyone else already sleeping in their bunkers, and he does take it, and it does make him feel better.

He remembers taking something similar the night after too. And then after that, someone gives him something newer, something more fun. Later, he takes it with a number of friends he’s made. He takes it while playing a game of truth and dare with some girls around a small bonfire by the lake. They play a game to pass a pill with their mouths and last person to have it in their tongue until it melts loses.

He remembers that he takes it and takes it until one night it doesn’t feel so good anymore and he finds himself by a bush in the middle of the dark puking as if his insides were going to flip out on him.

Yunho jerks out of his thoughts when he hears a knock on the door. His countenance immediately changes. He stands taller, face stiff, he looks a little more intimidating. His eyes meet the two men who’d just walked in.

They freeze and they look nervous, they better be.

"Do you have a fucking clue why you’re here?"

 

* * *

 

The room is quiet except for the incessant tapping of fingers along the wooden table. It’s 10 pm, and Yunho wants to pull his hair over the tax records on his computer screen. He could not concentrate. He hasn’t been able to concentrate for the past hour.

God, he has a head ache too.

There are two empty cups of coffee on the side of the table. It’s been a long day. Nothing’s gone right. Nothing has been going right for the weeks.

He pinches the top of the bridge of his nose and leans his head back on his chair. He’s going through the points from the meeting earlier when Siwon pops his head through the door of his office.

"Hey. Are you ready? The guys and I are already heading out."

Yunho only stares back at him and Siwon rolls his eyes, "Don’t tell me you forgot. I have a table reserved for us. We’re celebrating the case Sungwoon won?"

Being an heir of an entertainment company meant that Siwon always had access to exclusive celebrity hot spots. He’s always invited him. "Don’t bale out on me Jung," he teases. Yunho figures Siwon thinks their friendship is tighter than it actually is, but he likes him. He likes him enough to not say no.

"Yea, yea. No. I’m just finishing up. You guys go ahead."

"Great. Don’t be too late," he makes his way out, but before he does he double take on Yunho. "And man, you still look like shit. Relax will you?"

He throws another pill case to Yunho and he catches it with an arm out. "A downer this time," he clicks his tongue before he finally leaves.

Yunho taps his fingers on the new pill case on his hand. This time he doesn’t have a clue what it could be. He stares at it, just then the intercom on his table beeps.

He answers it, Sunny’s voice is on the other side. "Uhm boss, Mr. Jung has a call waiting for you."

That cannot be good. Yunho takes a deep breath before answering, "Yea. Let him through"

"Jung Yunho," His father is unhappy. He knows that stern voice very well.

_The driver opens the back door for him, he gets off and walks towards the large entry way. His father is standing by the door. He never waits for him like this. He has never seen him this way before. His dad has always been a tall man with a wide breadth, but at that moment he seemed so much bigger than usual._

_He’s waiting for him, for an explanation. Yunho knows._

_"Jung Yunho," His father says the syllables of his name clearly. The coldness in his voice is frightening. "A fight with some of the other boys from the camp? And unprescribed drugs found stashed in your pillow case?" He doesn’t sound mad. He’s stoic, which Yunho thinks is a million times more frightening._

"You know that there are more eyes on you than any other lawyer in this firm. Do you—Yunho are you even listening?"

He zoned out, but he generally knows what his father was getting at. His presentation for the briefing was weak, and he hasn’t been meeting deadlines. He knows the drill, he knows the disappointment, it’s been there since the day he left with his mother, it’s been there since he went home from that summer camp.

"I—I understand, I’ll be on top of it."

“You better be."

Yunho opens his mouth but doesn’t get a word through, the other line has already been dropped.

He doesn’t realise he’s been clenching the pill case in his hand. He stares at it again and it takes him a few moments before pulling his desk drawer open. He shoves it in and quickly grabs the other yellow one from his pocket, and throws it in too. He pushes the drawer shut, they two cases bump against the several similar ones kept inside.

He looks back at the monitor, nothing productive is coming to his mind anymore, he decides that trying to fix any more contracts would be futile for the night.

He resolves that he should just get going. He shuts his computer off and fixes his things, for the first time the whole day, he checks his personal phone.

Four messages. One from Changmin. Three from Jaejoong.

**Hyung. Thanks for the breakfast you left out for me. Glad you remembered my nutella-cereal-sandwich recipe. :)**

**Yunho. What time will you be out?**

**Where are you?**

**Fuck.You’re not answering. Fine. Let’s not meet up tonight.**

Shit. He forgot was supposed be meeting Jaejoong. Was he mad?

He quickly drafts up a message to apologise. He tries not to think about it too much.

 

* * *

 

When Yunho arrives at the club, there is no blinking lights or loud music. It was a slow night. No one is really on the dance floor, most of the customers are in the booths, just talking and having their own private conversations.

He makes it to the reserved VIP booth. It’s less of a party and more of a gathering with a number of their friends. Most of the guys are already drunk and Siwon orders a scotch for him as he sits down.

"Hey, what took you so long?"

"I had to finish some stuff up."

"Can you believe this guy? Always such a fucking diligent worker bee and he’s President Jung’s son!" Siwon pats him on the chest and everyone laughs.

"You know what they say Yunho, work hard play harder," another friend of theirs from university lifts a beer bottle to him.

Yunho only laughs before guzzling his own drink. There’s a loud cheer and they order more alcohol for the whole table. Yunho sits there, he smiles and nods the conversations, giving his two cents here and there.

He’s tired, not just physically. He sits there, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t care about whose girl is going to drop by tonight, or what car Soongwoon should get next week, but he tires to sound eager when he’s asked about his last vacation in Barbados. That’s how it is. It’s how he should act. It’s polite. It’s appropriate. It’s how he keeps their respect.

The night goes by in a blur, but time is no issue, and before he realises it, it’s 2:00 am.

Siwon is already long gone from his sight, and he escapes the booth that’s getting rowdier by the second.

Yunho secludes himself in the drinks bar, enjoying the company of only alcohol in his hand. He checks his phone, no messages. He looks over the new scheduling memo Sunny made for him before leaving. Tomorrow has an equally packed schedule. It’s going to be like that the day after, and the day after as well. The same old things, same old people, same old feeling, and none of it seem to be getting anywhere.

He catches a whiff of perfume from a woman making her way on the seat beside him. He turns to her, making a quick glance and an even quicker judgement. Half Korean, half caucasian. Her eyes are green and pretty against the low light, he takes note.

"You alone?" She smiles, her eyes wandering, eyeing him from head to toe. As she tucks her blonde hair into her ear.

Cute.

"I’m with that crowd," he tilts his drink to the booth of rowdy men.

"Bored with them already?"

"You can say that," Yunho smirks before he takes a sip. He knows what she’s after, and it’s not the first time he’s played this game. "So what will you be having?" He offers her something, it’s better than being alone in this shit hole.

She bites her lip before telling him what it is. From there they start a conversation, something about her trip to Paris and some shoes her father got her, he nods and tells her he’s been to Paris too. He engages her by asking if she knows this upcoming designer from Milan who’s supposed to have an exceptional store in Rue St Honoré, but it’s all just a part of a mechanical conversation.

Yunho thinks she’s boring, but neither of them are sitting there for a lovely chat anyway. They don’t stay at the club for long.

Yunho finds himself pinning her against the wall of a hotel room, teeth on her skin, his hands shoved down her panties. She lets out a whimper against his ear. She doesn’t moan his name, because she doesn’t even know it.

 

* * *

 

The girl has her back against Yunho as she sleeps. Only the dim bed lamps illuminate the room, but it’s bright enough for him to be able to count the freckles on her back.

The head ache he had earlier is back.

It was a good fuck though.

But he feels like shit.

Absolute shit.

He gets up and picks up his discarded clothes and puts them on. He checks back on her before making his way to the fridge and grabs a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, he knows she’s not waking any time soon. He sits on the coffee table and pours himself a few glasses until he’s back to the drunk state he was in earlier. He is sitting in front of the bed, and he can see her breathing.

It really was a good fuck, she was good, knew how to ride a dick, a little bit needy but he kind of liked that.

He watches her sleep, mind drifting again.

_"Yunho! Why aren’t you out with the other boys?" A girl wearing a cute floral summer dress takes a seat beside him. Yunho knows her, he remembers her from one of the nights they’ve played truth or dare. She’s a little bit older though, Yunho thinks maybe about 2 years older._

_He’s heard rumours that she had a crush on him. Apparently one of his friends caught some of the girls whispering about it. She’s really pretty and Yunho’s jerked off to her before after finding out that she liked him._

_."Nah. I’m not really into..that…uhm, getting high and—" He is slightly embarrassed._

_"Really? You were just with them…"_

_Yunho simply lowers his head without a reply. He doesn’t tell her he wasn’t too thrilled on joining them, because the other day he vomited his guts out for having too much of whatever it is they were taking, but she already seems to know._

_"I heard you got into a fight a few days ago"_

_Again, Yunho doesn’t reply._

_"It hurt didn’t it?" She pauses and touches the edge of her little finger with her own. She laughs nervously. "I’m not one for the all the drugs either. But you know what else can make you feel better?"_

_That’s when Yunho turns his head to her, she had a naughty sparkle in her eyes, and suddenly blood rushes down to his crotch and he feels warm._

_She takes his hand and guide it under her shirt, landing over her bra. He looks at her. She looks back at him as if asking permission, asking to be taken. It’s the first time Yunho’s seen that kind of look from a girl, and he’s sure there’s also a glint in his eyes that he’s never had before._

Yunho brushes his thoughts away.

His mind is hazy.

He sees his phone on the other side of the table. He checks it, there’s still nothing but a blank screen. No messages, not even from Jaejoong. He knows his apology was half assed, and he knows he shouldn’t have forgotten. Has Jaejoong even seen it yet? Did he wait long? Maybe he should apologise in person. Should he do it now? Would it be okay to go apologize to him personally now?

He wonders what Jaejoong’s doing, if he’s already asleep.

He suddenly feels very unsettled. The room suddenly feels very cold to him. Who the hell turned the temperature down? He shivers and he can feel his gut fighting back the alcohol in his system.

"Fuck, I need to get out of here."

He doesn’t even bother with a note as he leaves the room. He’s going to make her feel like a such a whore when she wakes up in the morning, but he can’t find himself to care enough. He shoves that thought to the back of his head.

He heads to his car, despite the few stumbles along the way. He sits for a moment to recollect himself, hands drumming against the wheel again.

"Fuck."

It takes him at least three tries before he finally starts his the engine as he fumbles with start up button of his R8. He is in no condition to drive, but it’s not his first time on the back of the wheel not sober.

The only thing that’s clear in his head is that he’s going to Jaejoong. He needs Jaejoong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I just wanted to write a quick note:  
> I started writing this story last year, and I actually already have 9 (maybe 10) chapters of it waiting to be posted, so I have a rough schedule of when I should post new chapters. However, I actually mulled over whether or not to post this, considering what has been happening in the world of k-pop recently. The story, I think, has some sensitive themes to it, and I didn't want to ruin anyone's experience of the fic or perception of any of the people mentioned in this story, because of what's happening. I ultimately decided to post it though, because at the end of the day it is fiction. I believe in the characters I've created, and how necessary these parts of the fic are to their development. By all means though, let me know what you think!


	3. Jaejoong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I thought you were going to be with Yunho tonight?"
> 
> "That asshole bailed on me." Jaejoong said, taking another sip of his drink.

Jaejoong walks through the cramped bar. The lights are dim, and the sounds from the stage barely register in his ears. It was a small open house, albeit quite crowded. The band that’s playing is a new and rising indie group from Busan. Their music was at most mediocre, but the boys in it were cute. They had attractive smiles and knew how to charm the audience. There were already girls in there who would give anything to go home with any one of them.

_Kids,_ he sardonically says in his head. All of them disillusioned in the romance of music. It was all too familiar to him, the allure of having someone write songs for you, the perceived romance of going on tour, taking your lover with you and fucking— _making love_ — in every city. It sounds fascinating, and in the beginning it is, but nothing ever ends well, no not in this world.

Music, music in itself was romantic, he doesn’t deny that, but the longer you live in it the more you realise that musicians who sing stories of love are not necessarily lucky enough to bask in it.

Or at least he isn't.

Maybe he’s become too cynical to be a _real_ musician now.

He used to be one of those dreamers, one of those young men on the stage, hopes in their eyes, hearts on their sleeves, but no, not anymore. Music is a hobby, he likes it but, fuck, is he not going to trade his day job to pursue it, at least not anymore.

"Thank you everyone! That’s our set for tonight!" The boys start packing up their gear, and Jaejoong reaches his destination.

"God, I miss the days when it was the music that mattered and not the band members’ faces." Heechul says as he hands him a short glass of bourbon. His regular.

Jaejoong takes a seat and a quick sip. "Hey, you got to admit, the Rolling Stones wouldn’t have made it as far if Mick wasn’t sexy mother fucker."

"Point taken," Heechul replies in open defeat as he rests his faces on his elbows, "But you know, at least there was eye candy and good music at the same time."

This time Jaejoong ignores him and merely watches another musician setting himself up on the stage. Jaejoong is not playing that night but he sticks around because sometimes, once in a while there’s someone who catches his attention, whose songs he’d actually like to hear. 

"I thought you were going to be with Yunho tonight?"

"That asshole bailed on me." Jaejoong said, taking another sip of his drink.

"Shouldn’t stop you from still getting laid," The bartender replies, there is a mischievous smile on his face, which Jaejoong notes is an overly cheerful thing for him to do. Usually, his friend would already be complaining about some customer who has vomited at a corner or some other. 

Jaejoong finally looks at him properly and takes him in. Wavy hair for tonight, parted in the middle—but it works, his maroon shirt is sticking to his body and he’s wearing a silver necklace that makes his skin glow. "Holy shit. Who are you dressing up for tonight?"

Heechul licks his lips and his eyes dart to a tall man wearing a black checked shirt. Jaejoong could only see him from the side, but even then he looked clean-cut. Definitely Heechul’s type. "He was here a few days ago, hasn’t missed a night since. We’ve already fucked in the manager’s room, but he asked me if I wanted to go to his apartment tonight."

Jaejoong looks at the man from head to toe, and then back up again, you could see his muscular build through his t-shirt and his cute ass on his skin tight jeans. He also licks his lips. 

"He has a friend you know," the bartender whispers to him, and Jaejoong doesn’t miss the rather handsome man in the table beside him. He catches him laugh and thinks, _not bad, not bad at all._

Heechul doesn’t need to say more as he gets off the barstool and heads toward their direction.

 

* * *

 

Even if he tried to, Jaejoong wouldn’t be able count how many times he and Minwoo have found themselves in a dark corner of a street, making out, and feeling each other up. Jaejoong refused to have sex at the bar’s dirty toilet, so there they were, barely making their way to his apartment. On hindsight, he doubts getting ravished in every corner stop of his neighbourhood was a far better cry from Minwoo’s original plan ofdebauchery in the toilet, but they’ve already come far. He’s fooled around in worse places, not a big deal.

Minwoo, that’s his name. He was a tech manager of some forgettable start up business, but that doesn’t matter, what mattered was that he had nice abs, and a sizeable erection pressing against Jaejoong.

He moans against him as his thigh pressed in between his legs, and he juts his hips for a little bit more friction. His cock wants to be freed of the confines of his pants already. 

"Minwoo" he breathes out, "Hey, we’re almost there" He pushes him off slightly but his companion can’t seem to get enough of his neck. He drags on a rather sharp bite and it catches Jaejoong off guard. An experienced hand palms the screaming cock underneath his clothes. Jaejoong closes his eyes for a little bit.

_A few more seconds,_ he makes a note, he’ll let Minwoo play with him for a few more seconds, then they could properly head to his apartment.

They were only a few feet away, and when Jaejoong opens his eyes he could already see the building. 

Wait.

Jaejoong squints and blinks.

Is that an R8?

It is an R8, a black shiny R8 by the curb of his building.

No one within a 200 meter radius of his apartment had an R8.

That was Yunho’s. Definitely Yunho’s.

"Yunho?" he mutters out of surprise more than anything.

He and Minwoo are close enough to each other that the other can hear even the faintest of whispers. "Excuse me?"

That seemed to have ruined the mood.

Minwoo pulls away from him, Jaejoong doesn’t even look. He is still staring at the expensive car parked in front of his apartment in disbelief.

"What the hell?" Minwoo asks, and it snaps Jaejoong back to his current predicament.

Jaejoong’s mind is trying to mend itself together. Lust, confusion, surprise, an overwhelming need to have Minwoo disappear right at the very moment, they are all stirring in his brain.

"I—" Jaejoong stutters. He bites his lips, not really knowing what to say "Minwoo," he glances at the car parked in front of his apartment again. "Minwoo…Fuck." 

He knows he’s being an asshole, but leading him up to his room, where he’s positive Yunho will be, is not exactly the best idea either.

"Minwoo. Shit. I’m sorry. I’m going to sound like an douchebag but, I,—I don’t think I can have you over."

The other man looks at him as if he grew a penis on his forehead. "What the fuck?" He says again, and Jaejoong does think it’s the appropriate reaction. 

The musician pushes him off. "I’m sorry. I really am."

"I don’t get what you’re getting off at!"

"Look. Sorry, I really am, just, fuck, something came up and, you’re really sweet and nice and—"

"And you’re a fucking asshole, you know that?" Minwoo is fuming at him, just as he has every right to be.

"I’m so sorry."

"Is that your thing? Do you like making people’s cocks hard and then suddenly push them away for no reason at all?" It’s Minwoo’s last words as he walks away angrily, he doesn’t forget to give him a proud middle finger as he strides without looking back. Jaejoong watches the body that’s quickly moving away and groans. He kicks a small stone on the curb and rubs his face in frustration. 

Jaejoong hates this, Minwoo was a really nice guy. 

"Jung Yunho, I am going to fucking kill you." He marches the two floors leading up to his door. He could feel his face warm, anger rising from his gut. He could literally wring Yunho’s neck at that moment. He wouldn’t mind kicking him in the nut sack either. 

Who does Jung Yunho think he is? Barging his way onto his apartment at an ungodly hour, especially after he’s single handedly cancelled their plans at the last minute. Just because Yunho is a deadbeat who doesn’t want to have sex that night, doesn’t mean he is.

What the hell was Yunho thinking? He was just about to get laid, he doesn't need a cock block.

Jaejoong was ready to yell at him and send him home. He was completely ready.

…until he sees Yunho sitting against the door of his apartment.

Jaejoong stops his tracks as he sees the sight before him.

Yunho looked almost lifeless. He didn’t have his jacket on, his hair is disheveled and his shirt barely buttoned. Jaejoong’s heart sinks a little bit. 

He lets out a couple of deep breaths and stares at the ceiling. The anger is slowly leaving his body and he let’s it, before approaching the mess of a man on his doorstep.

"Hopeless. This is hopeless."

He bends down to check on him, there’s the smell of alcohol on his breath and a woman’s perfume still lingers against his skin. He nudges the sweaty hair strands against his forehead. "Yunho, what the fuck happened?"

He feels Yunho nuzzling against his hand, and he whispers almost inaudibly, "Sorry."

He sighs and helps him up.

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong stares at the man dead to the world beside him. They are both on his bed. He’s since dragged him to his room and cleaned him up, he’d removed that god forsaken shirt that stenched of perfume and threw it in the garbage. He knows it’s probably expensive, but to hell with that.

He’s really supposed to be mad at Yunho.

But he isn’t. 

He touches the scar on his face, tracing it, underneath his eyes to the corner of his tear ducts. He realises he’s never asked Yunho how he got them. 

He fixes the lose strands of his hair. It’s grown longer since they’ve met.

"How did we get here, Yunho?"

His mind flashes back to the day he went up to Jung Tower for the first time. Heechul knew this girl named Sunny, who apparently worked as an assistant at a law firm. Jaejoong had just gotten into some trouble a week prior, because he swears someone stole the first verse of a song he wrote, but couldn’t do anything about it. His bartender friend had suggested that he get a copyright lawyer.

Sunny, god bless her soul and her big bright eyes, tried to help him out the best that she could but everything in that building was so fucking expensive.

400,000 won an hour just to talk to a prick in an expensive suit?

No thank you. 

Jaejoong knew it was mostly his fault for not even looking up what it took to get a copyright, let alone find out what a copyright lawyer costs. He left the the place feeling like he wasted time and found himself at the back of the building deciding to light a smoke before heading out. That’s when a man walks out out of the back door and pulls a cigarette from the breast pocket of his jacket.

_The man lets out a colourful string of curses as Jaejoong watches him fumble through his pockets, probably looking for a lighter._

_"I got one," He offers, and the other man finally notices his presence. Their views align, and their eyes linger for quite some time._

_"Kim Jaejoong?"_

_"Jung Yunho?"_

_They say all at once. They both nod and a short silence takes over, before Yunho starts a conversation about how they knew each other from Naju._

_Jaejoong takes in his features. His looked mature, had a thinner face than before, all the baby fat gone, his bone structure more prominent, but he had the same almond eyes and that perfect sharp nose. He was way taller than he remembered, he now had legs that could go for days that looked amazing. All his features complemented well with his very expensive looking navy suit._

_It may be a little bit of a stretch, but Jaejoong thought he looked regal, almost like a prince. Yunho grew up well, and by well, Jaejoong had thought he grew up_ fine _in the sluttiest way his mind could make it out to be. Not that he expected less from the captain of their school’s football team._

_"What are you doing here?"_

_"Ah. Nothing. Thought I could get a copyright deal but lawyers suck," he huffs on his cigarette. "You?"_

_"Yes. Lawyers do suck," Yunho laughs and seems to have loosened up a little bit. "Uhm. My dad, kind of uhm. Works here and I do too."_

_It clicks in Jaejoong’s head. Jung Yunho. Jung Tower. It’s far back in his memories but Jaejoong recalls. He’s always known Yunho was some sort of heir to something. Shim Sungryung’s prince and pauper sons. That was a big story back in the day. Words spread quickly around Naju, although he was too young then to remember clearly._

_"Oh shit. You’re a lawyer now? I’m sorry I said that about lawyers. Your dad’s_ that Jung _, right?" He points at the signage with his stick._

_Yunho nods sheepishly, as if it was something to be embarrassed about. He laughs again at the apology._

_Fuck. Yunho was hot, rich and intelligent enough to graduate law school? It was almost unfair._

_The wheels turn in his brain. A long lost childhood friend who turns out to be extremely good looking, and a possible ticket to a copyright deal? That sounded fun. Maybe he could play, and maybe he could end up getting what he wanted. He knows the game, he’s done it plenty._

_Rich stuck up lawyers were not really his type, but sleeping with one for free legal work would be worth it._

_Jaejoong turns to him with purposeful eyes. "Hey Yunho, are you by any chance free for a bit? Maybe we can catch up?"_

_That was all he needed to say. They don’t even finish their cigarettes._

_It was all a haze, and the next thing Jaejoong knew is that he’s at the seat of Yunho’s car, which at that time was a McLaren, half naked with his lips deliciously debauched._

_"I think I remember kids talking about you being a good kisser back in high school, man I wish I got on board sooner," Jaejoong says breathlessly as he bends down again for another taste._

_Yunho pulls the lever of the seat and the back rest falls, causing Jaejoong to topple over and their lips to part. "Thank you, but I’d also like to think I’ve gotten better over the years." Yunho smirks as he pulls him back to his mouth, tongue slipping at the parted lips. "God you’re beautiful."_

_Hands were all over, lips were fighting against each other, and heat, heat was just everywhere. Jaejoong has to remind himself to breathe, especially when Yunho’s hand pulls on his hair, nails scratching his scalp, and teeth biting on his bottom lip._

_Jaejoong moans, his hands fiddle to unbutton the lawyer’s pants. When he finally reaches for his cock, he groans. Jung Yunho was thick, and it would be a travesty not to put that in his mouth._

_Jaejoong pulls away. Not bothering to play with any other part of the body underneath him, he hungrily heads towards his goal. Finally, that cock. He pumps it a few times watching translucent liquid drip out. He just wants a lick, he’s always been a little bit of a cockslut and he’s not ashamed of it._

_Before he could do anything else, he feels gentle hands guide his face to look up. He doesn’t even bother hiding a disappointed whine. He digresses when he sees a serious gaze meet his lust filled eyes._

_He pulls himself up, straddling Yunho, a hand still languidly stroking his cock but he lets the other talk._

_Yunho uses all his self control to speak, Jaejoong is impressed. "Look, I’m not really looking for anything right now. There’s nothing you can expect from me. I’m busy and I don’t think I’ll have time for anything," Yunho says, voice quivering because of the way Jaejoong’s hand is thumbing the tip of his cock._

_Jaejoong stares at him, more amused than surprised. Jung Yunho, chooses this moment to be concerned about this?_

_It was almost adorable._

_"Say something."_

_"What? I find it hard to believe that you’ve never had casual sex before."_

_Yunho shakes his head, "No. It’s just that. You’re someone I actually, well, kind of know from childhood and—"_

_"Stop." Jaejoong shakes his head as well, smiling a little bit, how cute, he thinks. He presses a wet kiss on his lips. He halts his movements on Yunho’s manhood and brings two of his fingers up to Yunho’s lips._

_Yunho could smell himself, Jaejoong nudges his mouth open to let him suck on them. He slowly moves them in and out and Yunho obediently moves his tongue against them, licking and nipping. Jaejoong doesn’t hold back a moan. What he feels on his fingers he can also feel in his dick. He feels so warm, he could watch Yunho sucking on his fingers the whole fucking day. It was so sexy, seeing his lips around him, and that was just his fingers._

_The glint of concern in Yunho’s eyes is now gone, completely replaced with desire. His eyes are hooded as he watches Jaejoong slip out of his jeans and bring the wet fingers behind him._

_Jaejoong moans, eyes rolling to the back of his head as he intrudes himself. Moaning noisily and pushing his asshole against his own fingers. Yunho could only watch, breath hitching, his cock getting even harder. Yunho has slept with a lot of people but he’s never seen someone’s face so indulgent in pleasuring himself. He wants more. He wants to see that face against sheets, sweaty, begging for him._

_"Fuck that stings, but it feels so good" Jaejoong’s voice is low and course as he falls against Yunho’s chest, fingers still moving, sweat sticking on the shirt he’s still wearing._

_Jaejoong begins to whisper against his ears, "Whoever you remember me to be from Naju, I am not that person any more, okay?"_

_He lets out another moan and bites the corner of Yunho’s ear. He feels a slow nod. "Definitely. you’re definitely not that kid anymore." Yunho replies before squeezing his ass with both of his hands, and pulling him in for a rough kiss. "Don’t stop fucking yourself."_

_Electricity pulses through Jaejoong’s body._

Jaejoong shivers at the memory of their first time. They were cramped in the car, and leather on skin wasn’t exactly the best feeling ever, but it was some of the best sex he’s ever had. Just remembering it turns him on and a part of him almost wants to wake up Yunho for a quick fuck just then, but he decides against it.

After the romp in the car, Jaejoong found himself in Yunho’s office two days later, the lawyer helping him out on the copyright. It was to help a friend out, Yunho said, but Jaejoong knew it was out of guilt for shamelessly fucking an old childhood friend. Just like clockwork. 

It was supposed to end there. 

Except on the same day, they fuck again on the couch, and Yunho gives him a blowjob against his mahogany desk.

A week later, he’s in Yunho’s penthouse, moaning for mercy, hands bound to the headboard of the bed with Yunho’s necktie tight on his wrists, screaming to be pounded on harder. 

Then they start meeting once a week, and that once a week schedule had turned into thrice a week and thrice a week was sometimes replaced with every other day, every day, or thrice a day when either of them was horny. 

And then it comes to this point. 

Months later, Jaejoong is staring at Jung Yunho sleeping peacefully on his bed. 

Yunho was just some handsome lawyer he knew from more than a decade ago who had the capability to give him something he wanted. He really had not meant it to go on for this long, but neither is he complaining.

He feels the man stir in his sleep, and he places a hand on his forehead. Yunho gets fevers sometimes, when he works too much, when he’s too frustrated or stressed. Thankfully his temperature is at bay.

"Cold," he hears Yunho murmur and despite himself, Jaejoong moves closer and tucks himself against his side. He falls asleep counting Yunho’s heartbeats against his ears.

 

* * *

 

"Hey!" Yunho is only half awake when he feels warm hands slapping his cheek.

"Hey!" Slap. "Hey you piece of shit! Wake up!" The slapping hand relents, but it’s replaced by a painful tug on his cheeks.

That wakes up Yunho.

His head is still foggy. The first thing sees when he opens his eyes are Jaejoong’s annoyed ones glaring at him. It doesn’t matter though, just the sight of his face calms him down.

But alertness starts creeping up on him.

His mind clears up even more. He panics. "Holy shit what time is it?" He makes a move to get away from Jaejoong who is straddling him. Only then does he realise that he’s not wearing a shirt. 

"Calm the fuck down. I already called Sunny and told her you’re coming in late." Jaejoong rolls his eyes as he pushes him back to the the bed.

"Fuck. But I have a shitton to do at work." Yunho lets out a pissed off groan, Jaejoong doesn’t back down. "Have I mentioned that I hate how you’re friends with Sunny? People I sleep with should never know my assistant’s number."

"No. You shut up, asshole. You don’t get to be a drama queen with me this morning."

Jaejoong catches the returning awareness in Yunho’s eyes. He turns silent, and his skin heats up. He’s almost blushing in embarrassment. "Yea. So you remember now?" He stares at the man under him. "Just because we’re doing this _fuck buddy_ thing, doesn’t mean you can show up at my door at four in the morning, wrecked beyond recognition, while your fingers smell like some woman’s pussy! That’s just fucking rude!"

"Ugh. Fuck. Sorry" Yunho closes his eyes, head throbbing a little bit.

"I had to clean you up you know! What the hell did you have?" Yunho honestly doesn’t remember. He keeps silent.

They stay like that for a while, Jaejoong straddling him, Yunho has his eyes closed as the flashes of the night before come storming in his head. Neither of them budge away from their position. 

"You still stink, you better take a fucking shower. You have to make it up to me." Jaejoong finally speaks again. The annoyance in his eyes is replaced with a playful gleam.

Yunho blinks at him several times, then he breaks into a goofy grin and he just stares at Jaejoong like he’s magic. 

"What?"

Yunho thought Jaejoong was perfect. How did he get so lucky with landing the chillest guy in the world? Jaejoong is fucking awesome, and warmth spreads across Yunho’s chest. The warmth he had been looking for last night.

"Good morning kiss?" Yunho cranes his neck to reach out to him but Jaejoong pins him down again.

"No. Go. Take. A. Shower."

Yunho resigns and Jaejoong loosens his hold on him.

He is caught in whirlwind when Yunho suddenly flips him over and steals a hard kiss on his lips, before getting out of his bed and heading to the bathroom.

He hears Yunho’s chuckle, so full of himself for getting what he wanted.

Jaejoong he grabs a pillow throwing it to his direction, but before it hits his back, the bathroom door slams shut and it plops against hard wood. "You jerk!" he mumbles.

He hears the shower through the walls. He buries his head against a pillow. Yunho doesn’t know how much of Jaejoong he has wrapped around his finger. It was supposed to be the other way around. As far as he can remember, when they first met, he was the one in control. He was the one who’d manipulated to Yunho to get what he wanted.

He lies in the bed for a while before he gets up and strips himself as he heads to the bathroom.

Yunho is showering quietly when Jaejoong joins him, there is no surprise nor alarm when he enters the booth. The water is colder than he expects, so he flinches a little bit at the touch. Yunho gives crooked smile and wraps his body around him, as if to protect him from the sprinkling water. It does nothing at all to keep the water away, but Jaejoong appreciates the feel of his hardness against his bare skin. 

"Better?" Yunho licks the droplets against his neck. He hums in reply.

"Thank you." Yunho says quietly, Jaejoong knows he feels guilty, he always does.

Yunho leaves gentle kisses on the side of his jaw, Jaejoong closes his eyes and lets Yunho apologise the way he knows how. He takes a hold of the wet hair, massaging it and guiding him to to suckle on his favourite spots. 

And then Yunho stops. 

The gentle kisses are gone. Yunho lifts his head, Jaejoong lets go. 

He feels a thumb caressing a spot on his neck. He opens his eyes to see Yunho fixated on the spot he’s thumbing. Jaejoong doesn’t need a mirror to know what it was. He remembers Minwoo biting down on that patch of skin the night before.

There is nothing but the sound of the water pitter pattering. Every graze of Yunho’s finger pad suddenly feels like fire.

Yunho finally averts his gaze from the freshly blossoming hickey he knows isn’t his, and they intently look at each other. Jaejoong tries to read him. 

Yunho’s hair is sticking to his face, droplets on his eyelashes, he looked handsome and boyish at the same time. He doesn’t say a word, eyes darkening before he goes for Jaejoong’s mouth. It hurts a little bit when Jaejoong is pushed against the tiles.

Jaejoong rakes Yunho’s back with his nails. 

It is a strange limbo they’re in.

The look in Yunho’s eyes. Jaejoong wonders if it’s possessiveness, he refuses to think it’s jealousy, and he hopes to god it isn’t hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! YEY  
> I'd been itching to put this up because of how the last chapter ended.  
> I really appreciated all the comments and kudos. ;__;  
> Thank you for @kimjaejiggae for helping me edit and always checking and giving me feedback.


	4. Rubber Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His roommate’s having sex, the girl he was pining for is having sex, his brother’s having sex, the mailman and his landlord are having sex.
> 
> Is there anyone in the whole of Seoul who’s not getting laid?

**** When Changmin steps out of his room, he’s greeted by Kyuhyun who is in a pair of Ninja Turtle pyjamas. He’s digging into a bowl of cereal, breakfast at noon, but who is he to judge? He’d just woken up and gotten ready as well.

"Hey," his roommate lifts his spork to greet him. They only have sporks at their place.

Changmin actually smiles and gives a _hey_ back. It was kind of nice seeing Kyuhyun.

Alone. 

With no sign of Victoria in the vicinity. 

It beats wondering where he was, whether he was in her bed getting cozy with her or not, and it definitely beats having to hear them have sex through the thin walls of their apartment.

Changmin heads for the fridge, and picks up a pop-tart, then puts it in the microwave.

"Where’re you heading?" Kyuhyun tries to make small talk. They haven’t really been talking lately, with Kyuhyun being busy with his new thing with Victoria, and Changmin absolutely hating that fact.

"Thought I could drop by the record store, Junsu said they have some vintage vinyls coming in from New York today."

"Cool. Still hoping to get that Bob Dylan record?"

Changmin nods in reply.

The microwave dings, and he contemplates on eating the pop-tart there to converse more with Kyuhyun instead of taking it to go. It is, to an extent…pleasant, to talk to him.

"You coming home tonight?"

But there it is.

Changmin’s eyes narrow. Of course, he’s coming home, this is his apartment too.

"I’m thinking of having Victoria over, is that cool?"

Kyuhyun decides to ask this _now?_ Now, after he’s already heard them going at it like animals? After there’s already been more than enough inappropriate images etched in his head?

Changmin clenches his jaw and his roommate catches the sign of annoyance. "What? Is it a problem?"

"Our rooms aren’t exactly sound proof," Changmin snatches the heated pop tart a bit too hurriedly and he burns himself, but he wasn’t going to let Kyuhyun know he hurt himself. So he fights through it, holding onto the offensive snack that has heat searing into his skin.

Nope, he can’t afford to let Kyuhyun, perfectly unburnt Kyuhhyun, Ninja Turtle pyjama wearing, cereal eating, generously fucking Victoria Kyuhyun, have the satisfaction of being better than him at eating breakfast today. He cannot better than him in any way. 

"It’s not like you’ve never brought anyone home before."

_Yes but I’ve never brought home a girl you wanted to sleep with_ , Changmin holds back a reaction.

That’s kind of his own fault.

"Yea, no, whatever. Do whatever you want." Changmin moves in an angry stride.

No way is he staying one more minute in the apartment.

Kyuhyun stares unblinking at the door that Changmin had just slammed shut, extremely baffled.

Changmin’s got the pop-tart in his mouth, aiding his aching hand, as he jogs down the stairs of his apartment complex. He truthfully doesn’t know how he can remain being roommates with Kyuhyun if he continues fucking Victoria.

He’s surprised when he almost bumps into the mailman coming out from their land lord’s unit. He raises an eyebrow at the middle aged man. He notices his buttons are done incorrectly, his hair is messed up and he has a nervous spring when he greets him with embarrassment. Was his fly open?

The dude’s obviously thoroughly fucked.

He groans under his breath. Great. 

His roommate’s having sex, the girl he was pining for is having sex, his brother’s having sex, the mailman and his landlord are having sex.

Is there anyone in the whole of Seoul who’s not getting laid?

 

* * *

 

"That sounds like a some obscure bohemian adventure date, but it’s definitely a date, mom." Yunho laughs into his phone.

"Well, I’m certainly not seeing him again. I’m too old for dating."

"You are definitely not too old to do anything that will make you happy," he replies before he takes a bite out of the BLT he’s having for lunch.

"Yea, and you’re definitely not too young to choose things that make you happy either. I rarely get to talk to you these days, and every time I do, you just sound more tired than the last, are you really okay in that firm?"

Yunho glances at the pile of folders on his table. Of course, he’s okay. He never had to worry about job security, he had a job waiting for him, and he thinks he’s doing quite well in it. He’s got a massive flat. A great car, _three great cars_. Everything is absolutely fine.

He tells that to himself ever time. 

"Mom, you’re doing that thing where you’re worrying over nothing again."

"Sweetie, my instincts are never wrong, you can tell me anything you want, okay? If there’s anything at all, just let me know, and don’t forget that your brother is there too. I can’t believe you live so close to each other and you two barely meet."

Yunho nods, but he remembers his mother can’t see.  He swallows the remaining food in his mouth and finally answers, "I invited him to a photography exhibit, so there, we’re hanging out some time soon."

"That’s great! And my birthday is coming up so you better make it home for the time capsule excavation from under Tammy!"

Tammy is the sycamore tree they planted on their backyard when they first moved in Naju. Yunho doesn’t remember much of it anymore, but he has a vague memory of their mother explaining to him how they wanted to start their new life with bringing forth and planting new life in their new home— or something like that.

He sighs, "I’ll see if I can squeeze it in."

"Yunho." Sung Ryung pronounces his name, emphasising on each syllable. It’s the stern way his mother says it when she’s being serious, he knows she never really liked calling him by his whole name, _Jung Yunho._ She doesn’t say it, unlike the way other parents do when they were mad. As strict ‘Yun Ho' was what he was used to.

"I’ll try but I really can’t make promises."

His eye catches Sunny waiting in his office’s door frame, and he feels saved.

"Hey mom, I gotta go, my assistant’s waiting at the door," He says hastily, and drops the phone right after she finally resigns and says a goodbye.

"Yea?" he turns to Sunny waiting at the entrance.

"Are you done with your lunch, boss? Mr. Jung phoned me, he wants to see you?"

Yunho swipes the trash on his table to the garbage can, and stands up, composure completely changing from the sweet mama’s boy that was just on the phone. "Yea, tell him I’ll be there in a minute."

 

* * *

 

Changmin is sitting at the back counter of Grapevine as he lazily bobs his head to The Kinks’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’. He’s flipping though vinyls to check if there are interesting ones.  Grapevine was a small-scale record store named after Marvine Gaye’s 1967 hit, ‘Through The Grapevine’, which apparently, was the owner’s, Junsu’s father’s, favourite motown song.  The small store was a mere passion project Junsu’s father had on the side. Their family owned a few hotels in Jeju, and somehow the youngest son was left managing it. 

Junsu was one of the few friends he’d made in the short period he studied at Yonsei. Junsu wasn’t an airhead, he didn’t care how much Changmin was worth or what family he’s from. They were both a little bit like wallflowers. Junsu about had as many friends as Changmin did around campus, which was probably about three people tops, and for some reason that made a perfect match between them.

When they sat beside each other at an appreciation for physics elective and started talking, everything just clicked.  


Junsu was bubbly and talked to no end, but only with people he was comfortable with. He didn’t quite like music the way Changmin did, but he _knew_ music. He enjoyed Changmin’s company and they could talk about anything together. Junsu loved english movies as well, and he had a big lego collection that fascinated Changmin infinitely.

"Can you open that box for me? There’s supposed to be an invoice somewhere in there," Junsu asks from the other side of the counter, Changmin does as he’s asked and finds a small piece of blue paper and hands it over obediently.

He is basically an honorary employee of Grapevine at this point.

The next song from the record plays and Changmin’s head bobs to it as well.

"‘I’ll Remember’ _?_ Isn’t it too early for summer songs?" Changmin looks up from the vinyls he’s scanning to find Jaejoong walking in. He can’t quite believe it.

Jaejoong looks equally surprised when he sees him, "You work here?"

"You know each other?" Junsu comes up to meet Jaejoong halfway, and they walk together towards the counter.

"Yea, we know each other from childhood and I—uhm, know his brother," the slight shock is over and Jaejoong manages to wink at Changmin. "We’ve been meeting serendipitously lately haven’t we?"

Did Jaejoong frequent Grapevine? Did he somehow only visit when Changmin wasn’t around, because Changmin’s around a heck lot and he doesn’t remember Jaejoong. He would totally have remembered if someone that hot came by—right?

Or have they just never really took time to notice each other?

"Junsu, Mary-J’s please," Jaejoong says casually, and Junsu groans.

" Jaejoong thinks I’m his pot dealer," he tiredly explains to Changmin who just snorts at him.

"You are, Junsu," the other says as a matter of factly.

Junsu looks at Changmin with the most incredulous head shake, mouthing the words "No".

Jaejoong sees his not so sneaky signal and rolls his eyes, Junsu catches this. "No! I’m not your dealer! I’m not. You come in here and take advantage of the fact that I have extra stashes," he says in a cute defensive voice. Only Junsu can make talking about drugs sound absolutely adorable.

"Junsu’s perfect, don’t you love him? People thinks he’s all innocent and cute, no one would think he smokes, he’s my cute personal weed provider."

Junsu denies it again and Changmin watches them back and forth. 

Incredible. So Jaejoong knows Junsu too, quite well it seems, and Changmin’s never met him met until a few days ago, how can the world be this small and yet, how can he have been so oblivious to his existence? But that doesn’t matter anymore. Jaejoong is friendly towards him.

Junsu finally gives up and gives Jaejoong a small bag of weed. Pleased with himself, Jaejoong asks Changmin to play some Rolling Stones and sits on the counter top. 

Changmin doesn’t need to be asked twice.

"Come on you guys! It’s store hours!"

"Junsu, baby, it’s 1:30 pm on a Wednesday, no one’s coming in here at this hour." Jaejoong says with a naughty smile.

The guitar from ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ starts rolling in. Jaejoong hops off the counter and moves his head to the rhythms, doing a goofy dance to the music.

_"I can’t get no satisfaction,"_ He starts singing, his mischievous eyes totally in contact with Changmin, urging him sing along.

He shakes his head, not helping himself from smiling before he starts to sing too.

Jaejoong was magnetic. 

He even gets the apprehensive Junsu to sing along, " _Cause I try, and I try, and I try!_ "

In a matter of seconds, Jaejoong is holding onto a stapler pretending it’s a mic, Junsu is playing air guitar and Changmin is outside the counter raising his hands as if he was in a moshpit. They’re singing at the top of their lungs like crazy people but it doesn’t matter.

Jaejoong seems to have a talent for making Changmin’s day better.

 

* * *

 

Yunho enters his father’s office, Jung Woo Sung is sitting calmly behind his huge mahogany desk. There are no photos placed on top of it, no personal trinkets, nothing but a name plate, a computer, some pens, and folders.

"Ah. Yunho."

He takes a seat. "You wanted to talk to me about something?"

His father takes the folder on the middle of the desk and looks at it for a moment before looking back up at him. "I ran through the contracts for the big merger."

"Yea. My team and I have been working on those."

"I see you’ve made adequate changes." His father remarks, which was code for: It’s not quite satisfactory, but I guess you tried so this will do.

Yunho only takes a deep breath and doesn’t bother answering him. 

"Well, I’m glad it’s underway," Another code for: Why is this taking so long?

"We’re trying our best to balance the demands of both clients, they’re two really big companies and aside from contradicting claims from both sides, there’s also some concerns about government regulation." Yunho explains, he knows this case like the back of his hand.

His father only nods.

"Since it’s a horizontal merger there’s a whole issue about there not having enough competition to sustain the current prices of the products they’re offering—"

"Yes, Yunho. I know, I took up a business development class, this is not a college lecture. You don’t have to explain what a horizontal merger is," he replies dismissively and Yunho shuts up.  "Anyway, that was just chit chat. I called you in for something else."

Of course that was just chit chat, of course.

"Your mother— _step mother—_ saw the guest list at the coming exhibit she’s affiliated with."

Yunho already knows what the issue is. How did he not see this coming?

"It seems you requested your assistant, Seunhee—"

"Sunny," he corrects.

" _Seunhee_ , to add another person to the guest list?"

"Yea. My brother."

Woosung inhales deeply. 

"Changmin was over at my place the other day and he has a very deep interest in photography. I thought it’d be great to invite him, he takes these amazing shots of—"

"Yes yes, I don’t need to be bothered by the minor details."

Yea, because anything about Yunho’s family is but a _minor_ detail to him.

"I know I told you you could bring someone, even though I was mistaken in hoping it would be a lovely date for the evening, I will keep my word." Yunho always thought his father had a strange sense of integrity."Just make sure you have things under control. Everyone is going to be there. Even your grandmother, we wouldn’t want to upset her." He lowers his gaze, "Really, everyone. Friends, business prospects, I just don’t want any obscure rumours spreading around."

Yunho bites his tongue and hopes the frustration isn’t too obvious in his face. "Okay. Understood." He makes his way out of the office even before his father dismisses him. It’s rather impolite but at that point he didn’t care.

 

* * *

 

Two hours after their _mini concert_ at Grapevine, Changmin finds himself sitting on the floor of Jaejoong’s room, laughing at the horrendous but charming way the owner of the apartment is singing to The Beatles’ Michelle as he’s sprawled on the carpet. Unintelligible French and all. Changmin is big enough of a geek to know each and every word of that track, but he doesn’t bother correcting him.

Earlier, the musician had said he had a rare original press vinyl of Rubber Soul at home so he _had_ to see it. When he got invited to his place, he was worried he’d be imposing too much, but Jaejoong made it clear that it was not a big deal.

"I’ve known you since I was 6, and your brother’s always comes over anyway," he told him, which Changmin was glad to hear, but also, he didn’t need another regrettable mental image of Yunho having sex in hid apartment plaguing his head.

The song is coming to an end.

_I love you_

_I love you_

_I love you_

Jaejoong is no longer singing at the top of his lungs, but quietly, almost in a whisper, he sings it while he stares at nothing. He looked sad, Changmin notes.

Changmin has lost count on the number of times they’ve replayed the record, but he doesn’t mind at all. They’ve managed to talk about everything and nothing while the Rubber Soul album was blowing in the background.

He now knows Jaejoong’s first ever crush was Keith Richards. He knows he can play the guitar, piano, and some harmonica on the side, and that he had once got into detention because he punched a kid for not playing Led Zeppelin in the school radio. To be fair, they were taking requests and denied only his.

Norwegian Wood starts playing. The atmosphere of the room shifts into an air of calmness, much like the mood of the song.

"I love the sitar in this." Jaejoong breathes out as he sits back up, Changmin concurs.

"Yea. All thanks to my man George. Can you imagine if he didn’t manage to convince John and Paul to add it? A Norwegian Wood without sitar?"

"Fuck they were geniuses." Jaejoong moves to sit beside Changmin. "I wish I could write like that."

"I mean, you’re a musician, at least you’ve got that on going for you already."

Jaejoong shakes his head "I’m not. I play once a week, at a tiny as stage, I write a few unfinished songs and that’s it. I’m a fucking hairdresser for dogs."

"What?" Changmin’s eyes bolt wide open causing Jaejoong to snicker. What a revelation, someone as cool as Jaejoong, hairdressing dogs?

"Yea man, I groom dogs for rich snobs."

Changmin laughs because he cannot, in any way, imagine Jaejoong standing with a poodle in his hands, giving them fancy perms or whatever they do. "I’m quite good at it mister!" He says with a sly smile, "I am a man who has many sides."

"I just didn’t think of you as a dog person." He laughs out again.

"Oh fuck no! I hate dogs. I’m a cat person. But the hours are great, the pay isn’t bad at all, and I have time to get to do music on the side"

"Sounds like a sweet deal," Changmin says with a smirk.

Jaejoong nudges him playfully, "Are you making fun of my job?"

"No," he answers, but he totally is.

"You’re just like your brother, teasing me like that!"

Changmin shrugs it off. They notice that the song has changed and the comforting sound of the sitar is gone.

Jaejoong stands up, deciding that they’ve had enough replays of the album for the day. He stops the turntable and moves to the corner to the room to pick up a guitar.

"Hey, let’s play something," he sits back down. "Have _you_ ever written anything?" 

Changmin is taken by surprise. Really? Does he look like someone who can write music? 

Changmin feels somehow elated because Jaejoong genuinely looks interested. And he does, he has written music, but it doesn’t change the fact that he knows he can’t write well.

"I—uhm—I’m actually writing something right now…but it’s not that good."

"Shoot," Jaejoong simply says handing him the guitar.

"No, really—I…"

Jaejoong let’s out a tired sigh. He doesn’t seem like the guy who’d be into bullshit like self deprecation. "Come on. It’s only me. I’m not a real musician, remember?" He smiles again encouragingly. 

That magnetic smile. Changmin can do nothing about it.

He holds the guitar properly.

"Come on." Jaejoong says again, "I’ve written bad songs. Bad, bad, horrible songs, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about."

Changmin has never let anyone hear his songs before, and he doesn’t quite know why he suddenly wants to sing it for a guy he can barely even call his friend either, but Jaejoong looks at him with a sort of weird acceptance that makes him want to show more of himself to him.

He thinks—he can totally trust someone who thinks The Beatles are geniuses, right?

"This doesn’t even have a title yet and I only have the chorus down…" Changmin finally says. There’s a little apprehension but his hands are already on the chords. 

He starts.

The gentle tune plays, and Jaejoong is already impressed with the way he’s handling the instrument.

_In a different life_

_I hear it in the wind_

_In a different life_

_I hear your voice_

He plays a little bit more and sings the chorus again, before he stops and looks at Jaejoong with a sort of fear he could hardly recognise. His heart is beating loudly.He waits for a judgement.

Mother of god, he feels so vulnerable.

Jaejoong opens his mouth and closes it again. Eyes wide, and all that’s running in Changmin’s head is that he’s flabbergasted at how bad he is, but the insult doesn’t come. "Wow," Jaejoong manages to blurt out. Changmin feels like he won at wheel of fortune or something. 

Jaejoong is legitimately impressed. Not a lot of people can actually mix English and Korean lyrics well. "That’s fucking good, that’s actually fucking good." Jaejoong says, blinking at him.

"Yea? That feels kinda big coming from a _real musician,_ " Changmin teases, shyness fading away a little.

Jaejoong nudges him again. "I’m no real musician." He quickly changes the topic away from himself, "You know what would be great?" He takes the guitar from Changmin, there is a tinge of excitement in his voice, it makes Changmin feel nervous, but the good kind. 

"If you add a hook…in the first two lines…add a small melodic lick," he sounds like he’s trying to figure out an answer to an exam or something, knitted eyebrows and all. "Maybe pause the singing for two seconds and then continue with the second ‘ _In a different life’_ …come on sing the first two lines."

Changmin hesitates for a bit, but sings nevertheless. Jaejoong accompanies him with the guitar, and he watches with wonder— actual wonder— in his eyes as Jaejoong’s fingers move along the strings of the guitar, the other man’s already got his tune on lock and he’s only heard it once.

A chill runs up Changmin’s spine. They’re making music together. Jaejoong smiles at him, the adjustments he’s making on the guitar lick is perfectly fitting the small amount lyrics and melody he’s started on.

Jaejoong could quite possibly be the most amazing person he’s met.

The song, or the incomplete fraction of the song, is over, and they both stare at each other with pleased, inspired looks their eyes.

Changmin has never played music with anyone, not like this. Sure he’s jammed a little bit with Kyuhyun, but not like this. They didn’t make music, he didn’t open his heart up and play him a song he’s written.

There is a high running through his veins, and it’s not because of the weed. Forget that Jaejoong is hot, forget that he smiles like the sun, forget that he’s funny and witty, even with all that gone, Jaejoong knows how to make beautiful music and that’s mind blowing to Changmin.

"So what do you think?" Jaejoong asks and Changmin is at a loss for words.

He doesn’t want to be ahead of himself or anything, but is this what Lennon and McCartney felt like when they made music?

"Hey, you alright?" Jaejoong waves a hand in front of him. Changmin looks at him like he’s magic, and it somehow reminds Jaejoong of the way Yunho does.

"God. You’re amazing, and I hate that you’re dating my brother!" he manages to say.

Jaejoong only laughs. He picks up and passes him the joint they’re sharing.

They try to add a little more to the song, writing lyrics and guitar chords at the back of a discarded flyer they found lying on the coffee table. They work on it for a while, exchanging the guitar and rewriting notes and words. It’s the most fun Changmin’s had in a while. They don’t notice the time, not at all.

Soon Changmin has to leave. He promised Junsu he’d help packing up before the store closes, and Jaejoong is also meeting up with Yunho later that night. 

Before he walks out the door, "Hey are you going to that photo exhibit? Yunho invited me and I thought maybe—" Jaejoong has a confused expression on his face. "Oh. You’re not going?" realisation hits Changmin.

Jaejoong doesn’t really know how to respond, but even before he gets a chance to, the other continues, "Ahh. I get it. Yunho’s side of the family can be a pain in the ass. Hell, I’m surprised he invited me, and I’m his brother. Have you met his aunt? The one who used to be a model for Versace?" He starts fumbling with his words.

"No. No, I don’t think so."

"Well good, because she once told Yunho I had no pedigree. We have shared genes for gods sake. Also, pedigree? What am I a show dog?"

Jaejoong chuckles.

A light bulb goes out in Changmin’s head. "Hey. You know what? You should be my plus one."

"What?"

"Come on let’s tease hyung!"

"I can’t do that!"

"Come on! I’ll be bored out of my mind and well, Yunho’s going to have to go on with his _Jung_ duties for the whole night anyway," it’s all true, and teasing his brother aside, Jaejoong’s company will help him cope being around all the snobby folk at the event.

Jaejoong sighs. "Changmin," he says in a tone resembling to his middle school teacher.

"I mean, it’s payback for my song. I let you listen!" There is a boyishness in his voice that is endearing.

Jaejoong is amused and finally gives in, "You’re going to have to explain to your brother why you asked me out on a date."

"We share everything," Changmin jokes with nothing but friendly intentions behind it, and Jaejoong kicks him out of the door. "You’re as hopeless as your brother, Shim."

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong arrives at the penthouse at a quarter past nine. He had hummed to himself through the elevator. He’s had a music filled afternoon with Changmin, and Yunho is going to be in between his legs later that night. All is good in life.

"You’re in an excellent mood," Yunho hears the humming as Jaejoong makes his way to the bedroom. He puts away the phone he’s been fiddling, as Jaejoong comes to his view, already with a smirk on his face, walking sultrily towards him, his cock stirs. He welcomes Jaejoong who is climbing onto the bed. "I had a great day," Jaejoong is on top of him, already playing with the buttons of his shirt. "It’s about to get better."

"Mmm. That’s nice," Yunho holds the back of his neck and guides him for a slow kiss, he feels his hands make their way inside his shirt, brushing against his nipples. 

Jaejoong always tastes ridiculously good, specially after a tiring day at work. 

"I was with your brother today," Jaejoong manages to say in between.

Yunho halts, a little bit confused. "I met him at the record store and we kind of hung out at my place," Yunho’s nose is at the side of his neck, taking his scent in as he explains. He takes a second before lifting his head.

"It’s kind of weird that my sex buddy and my brother are hanging out but that could be awesome."

"I found out Changmin really has talent for music," Jaejoong muses as he plays with the hair on the back of Yunho’s head.

"I’ve always thought he did. You should help him out you know, a real musician…"

Jaejoong lets out a laugh, earning another confused look, "He called me that too you know? _Real musician,_ " Jaejoong licks Yunho’s nose, a hand snaking down to unbutton his jeans.

"Okay. Fuck. If we’re going to have sex, we have to stop talking about my little brother."

He pulls Jaejoong down, clothed hips starting to move to find more friction, and he dives in for another kiss, but Jaejoong’s finger meets his lips before he could. "I have another thing to tell you," his expression turn serious.

"What?" Yunho’s hands are rubbing his inner thighs, and his warm hands feel delicious that it’s so easy to forget anything else, but Jaejoong knows he has to say this.

"Your brother asked me to be his plus one to that photography exhibit you invited him to. He said it would be fun, and I kind of said yes." Jaejoong looks at him, not knowing how he’ll react. Yunho’s movements stop.

He remembers his father's words, not exactly something he wants to recall at the moment. 

Yunho sits up, shirt barely clinging onto his torso.

Jaejoong comes up to him and holds his face with both hands, making Yunho focus on him "Hey. I don’t have to go if you don’t want me to."

Did he actually not want him to be there? Jaejoong might actually do good for him too.

Yunho thinks of the sea of people wearing the same brands and the same dull colors, talking about the stock market, and making a fuss about whose going son is getting married to whose daughter, then he imagines finding Jaejoong in the crowd. That would be nice.

Yunho decides it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Jaejoong was going to be his brother’s plus one, not his. It would be good for Changmin to be with someone he knew. He calms his thoughts, pushing his father’s voice at the back of his head. 

"Yunho?" Jaejoong calls him back.

"You should go." 

Jaejoong only nods. Yunho doesn’t really like talking about these things, Jaejoong understands that. He’s seen Yunho get lost in his thoughts before, and he feels a little guilty for causing him to be pensive. He didn’t mean to. He was never meant to be that guy who gets involved with Yunho’s personal life, and he shouldn’t.

Jaejoong pulls him back to the bed, "Come on, I’ve missed feeling you inside me." 

Jaejoong’s husky voice and warm breath engulfs his thoughts and Yunho lets himself be guided back to the sheets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> I have a short 3shot waiting to be posted, but I was debating on whether to post that instead of this chapter, but I feel like after Jaejoong's chapter has ended, I needed to post what happens next! Hahaha.  
> Oh my. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I do hope you write a comment. I always tell this joke to my unofficial beta, @kimjaejiggae (thank so much btw), but, I am a comment whore. It is half true. Hahaha. I really like knowing what people think because it helps me with my writing. Toodles. ^^


	5. Something Stupid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yunho hands the keys of his car to the valet. They arrive at the gallery, guests were already mingling as they enter. Yunho walked ahead and Changmin and Jaejoong follow him through the crowd, both of them noticing that there were already several people who stopped to either bow or greet him.
> 
> Yunho was important like that.

"Fuck, _fuck,_ fuckity-fuck, what the fuck?" Changmin mutters under his breath as he looks at the selection of suits sprawled out on his bed, a mix match of dress pants, jackets, shirts and ties. He has a bunch because Yunho likes gifting him with them, if it were up to Changmin, he’d pawn everything off and use the money to buy Alfred Hitchcock movie memorabilia, but there he is with a ton of unworn suits.

He’s wearing brown jacket and pants, with his cream coloured shirt unbuttoned underneath, but he’s not quite sold on that particular combination. It’s the fifth outfit he’s tried on and still he hasn’t got the slightest clue what to wear. 

He takes a look at the invitation in his hands again before throwing it off to the corner of his room.

_Attire: Dress Casual_

What does that even mean?

"Who’s getting married? Also, you look like a tree." He whips his head to the open door to see Kyuhyun leaning against the frame, hands in his pocket.

Ah, the man of the hour, Cho Kyuhyun. Changmin is still pissed at him, but he’s also getting used to the idea of him sleeping with Victoria by now. What choice did he have?

"I’m going to an exhibit."

"Exhibit?"

"Hyung invited me to a photography exhibit."

"Yunho hyung?" Kyuhyun makes his way inside, looking at him with an expression of disbelief, probably thinking he’s insane because he knows he doesn’t have an ounce of interest in any of Yunho’s current affairs.

Kyuhyun drops himself carelessly on the bed earning him a stern look from Changmin. "Sorry," he says making sure to rearrange himself and the clothes. His roommate ignores his apology. 

"Yea. It’s actually really cool. They’re going to be displaying Ueda Shouji photos, and it’s going to have rare pieces. Privately owned portraits that were lent just for the event."

Kyuhyun’s face morphs into one of impressed surprise. "Holy shit man! That’s actually really impressive. Must be sweet having a loaded brother like Yunho."

Changmin looks at himself at the mirror, this time holding a very dark grey suit against his body, "Yea, it is sweet having a brother like Yunho." Not in his lifetime would he have been invited to an event like this. Complaining, teasing, and being bratty aside, he is thankful for Yunho and everything he does for him.

"You should pick this dark purple one," Changmin frowns at his friend’s suggestion. That one looked horrible.

"I’m not listening to you." 

"Ugh. You’re still pissed about me bringing Victoria home, aren’t you?" 

Changmin will always be pissed about that.

"I told you I don’t like getting sleep-deprived from hearing you have sex! There’s a motel a few blocks from here." 

"Listen. Victoria isn’t the type of girl you’d take to some cheap motel, okay?"

Changmin can feel his face heating up. Can’t he just pick a suit in peace and quiet? "Yea, because a motel totally beats fucking her within the thin walls of your room while your roommate is on the other side. You’re a horny asshole, you know that?"

A helpless noise comes out of Kyuhyun’s mouth, "But fuck Changmin, I’m telling you. If you knew how good she was in bed, you’d understand. That girl knows how to fuck hard," he says in a dreamy manner and that was the last straw.

"Okay. That’s it. I have to make a call to Yunho. Get out!" Changmin hauls his roommate out of the bed, it’s almost comical how he does it, and Kyuhyun is laughing at his friend’s frustration, not really thinking much into it.

He closes the door and picks up his phone to contact his brother, anything just to keep his mind off Kyuhyun and Victoria.

"What is it?" Yunho’s voice is strangled. Changmin goes rigid.

"Who is it?" he hears a faint voice in the background.

Changmin clears his throat, "Hyung, are you with Jaejoong?"

"Y-yea. Jaejoong’s here," voice still strained.

He rolls his eyes, but then he hears a stumbling noise, the voice on the phone changes, "Hey Min," Jaejoong sounded cheerful. "Yunho, I swear to god— keep your hands off your dick!" he says, covering the the phone but his voice is still heard from the other line.

"Jaejoong," Changmin says flatly. He really is the only one in the planet who’s not getting any action.

"Have you been writing?" 

Yes, he has. He’s been, _inspired_ recently. In fact, for a few days now he’s felt like he’s been in a high. The Rubber Soul album plays in his room several times a day, and most of the time he has a notebook and a guitar on his lap as he muses lyrics. It totally has nothing to do with Jaejoong though. Nothing. "Not really.

"Bummer. But you know what, we can totally talk about it later, yes?" 

"Yea."

"Oh! And your brother wants to know why you called."

"Ask him what _dress casual_ is supposed to mean?"

Jaejoong passes the phone onto Yunho whispering, "He wants to know what he should be wearing."

Yunho grabs the phone, "Jacket, dress pants and a shirt, you don’t need a tie or anything."

"Okay, got it. Also, can I borrow shoes?" 

"Yea sure, I’ll bring some to choose from."

"Great!" Changmin replies before quickly ending the call.

On the other side of the phone, Yunho makes his way to get up and find a pair of clean boxers.

"We need to get dressed," he says, slapping Jaejoong’s ass to get him moving.

Jaejoong stretches like a cat, "It’s a Saturday. Can’t we just stay here and have sex for hours on end? Also, I haven’t had my orgasm yet."

"That’s your punishment form hijacking my conversation with Changmin. And I would love to have sex all day, but I’m not your date remember? You’re going with my brother."

Jaejoong laughs. "Saying that out loud sounds so fucking weird," Yunho says before disappearing into the walk-in closet.

 

* * *

 

Changmin is looking at his reflection for the millionth time. He’s finally decided on a dark grey, almost black, set from Dolce&Gabbana. That’s classy and expensive, right? He can’t go wrong with something expensive.

"I look so stupid," he mutters to himself. He adjusts his hair a little bit, but it doesn’t really make a change. There was only so much to do with a short haircut.

He hears a knock on the door and Kyuhyun pokes his head out, "Hey, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there’s a Maserati getting funny looks from passers by in front of our apartment, it’s probably your ride?"

Maserati? Yunho drives an Audi.

Changmin peeps through the blinds from his room, and sure enough there’s a red Maserati Gran Turismo parked outside. Of course his brother also owns one, the R8 is only a two seater after all. 

He picks up his phone and looks at the mirror one last time before he jogs out of their apartment unit. When he walks out of the building, he immediately feels out of place. No one wears _dress casual_ in this neighbourhood.

He sees his brother and Jaejoong smoking cigarettes by the car. "Sorry, I’m late I didn’t—" he’s short of breath when he sees Jaejoong look up to him. Is he allowed to look that good?

His usually messy hair was pushed back, eyes no longer lined by dark kohl, but his thick lashes accentuate his eyes which looked softer than usual. His shaded burgundy suit complimented his pale skin and made his plush lips look so much more edible than usual.

Wow, just wow.

He stares at him like a fool, and Jaejoong does nothing but smile back

"Ready to go?" Yunho asks throwing the remaining fraction of his stick to the ground.

"Yea. But shit, at least you two look dressed for the part. I look like an idiot." Changmin says eyes shifting between Jaejoong and his brother, feeling very unwarranted.

"You look fine," Yunho says as he rounds the car.

Jaejoong, however, approaches him and goes for the buttons of his shirt. Changmin is a little panicked at the fingers fumbling against him.

Jaejoong unfastens the first two buttons and opens his shirt, palms lightly brushing the skin of his chest, eyes never leaving his. "There. Better," he says with a wink and a smirk before getting in the car, and he follows right behind him.

Changmin is screwed.

Yunho starts the engine and glances at him through the rear view mirror. "Oh Min, I have a few leather shoes at the back, just check out which one want to borrow."

The siblings hear a cackle from Jaejoong and they synchronously voice out a "What?"

"Nothing, I just find it amusing that you two have the same shoe size. You know what they say about big feet."

Changmin groans.

"Stop being so gross!" Yunho lets out.

Jaejoong only laughs harder.

 

* * *

 

Yunho hands the keys of his car to the valet. They arrive at the gallery, guests were already mingling as they enter. Yunho walked ahead and Changmin and Jaejoong follow him through the crowd, both of them noticing that there were already several people who stopped to either bow or greet him. 

Yunho was important like that.

He spots his father and stepmother, and approaches them. "You’ve made it." Park Jungsoo, the new Jung wife, greets him with a cordial kiss on either side of his cheeks. 

"You already know Changmin, and this is our—his— friend, Kim Jaejoong," he introduces.

Jungsoo smiles a fake smile. She gives Jaejoong a handshake and if she wasn’t leering down on his G-clef tattoo he would’ve complimented how soft and smooth her palms were. "Interesting" she says condescendingly, still eyeing the offensive patch of skin.

It’s a little disconcerting, but Jaejoong figures he’s had it good because Mrs. Jung doesn’t even bother acknowledging Changmin. She had literally treated him like air.

"Well, there are a few guests looking for me, I’ll get going," she removes herself as politely as she could, which wasn’t polite at all. No effort in even the slightest of small talk.

Woosung asks Yunho about work for a little bit before he too departs.

Yunho looks at Changmin apologetically. This was always the downside of taking Changmin with him. He feels guilty, he’salways had. At the back of his head he knows he’s only kidding himself when he hopes things would change.

"Changmin, I’m sorr—" Before he could continue, someone puts an arm on both their shoulders, "Oh my god! It’s the Jung-Shim brothers!" It’s Siwon, with a big grin on his face.

For all the lavish parties and his bad boy image, Siwon is actually one of the few people who are friendly with Changmin. Siwon was a social butterfly, he could be arrogant and say the most pretentious things, but with all things considered he genuinely liked talking to people that interested him, it didn’t matter where they were from. 

"Tell me again why you never pushed through with being a trainee at my family’s entertainment company?" Siwon lets go of Yunho, but keeps an arm on Changmin.

"Current mainstream music is rotting the brains of the youth," Changmin replies with an overly dramatic sigh, although he’s a little bit relived that there’s actually someone there who cared to interact with him. 

"My dear Changmin let me tell you about the role of Korean pop music as a driving force in our rising economy…" Siwon seems to have forgotten the other people around them and drags Changmin away.

"Interesting first ten minutes," Jaejoong remarks, a little bit confounded. 

"I’m already stressed," Yunho says. He looks at Jaejoong who smirks at him. Yunho recognising the naughty glimmer in his eyes. Did Jaejoong just take that as an invitation?

"Well, I can help you with stress," he whispers to him inconspicuously. If the rest of the night was anything like the past ten minutes, he would rather start it off with sex to at least help him get through, plus he hadn’t gotten his orgasm yet. Yunho doesn’t completely seem to think it’s a bad idea.

"You sure?" Yunho eyes him from head to toe, just realising how delicious Jaejoong looked like in his fitted suit.

"Yea, but it’s your turf, your call," Jaejoong looks at Yunho with an expression of slyness he knows too well. Yunho realises it’s not his own call, not when Jaejoong licks his plush lips while staring at him like the way he is. 

Jaejoong looked extremely handsome in his suit, and he’s been wanting to see his flushed face against it. There is something about the man Yunho knows he can never deny. His blood is already rushing south, and his brain is already flying out the gutter.

Yunho makes up his mind, rather his balls do it for him. 

He doesn’t take Jaejoong’s hand but he guides him through the hall, they find themselves at the restroom located at a rather empty corridor.

 

* * *

 

Siwon has disappeared off to somewhere, having been taken away mid discussion by a land developer who wanted to ask him about an asset their family owned in Busan. 

Changmin finds himself staring at a black and white photo of a schoolgirl carrying an umbrella in the middle of the beach. He’s never seen that particular piece before. He stands there, admiring the genius composition of Ueda’s work.

This event might be a shit show parade of snobs but he is thrilled to see some of his rare works.

He somehow feels better when he notices some people who looked fairly interested with the art instead of just the endless ass-kissing.

He looks to his left, and sees a beautiful tall slender girl with long hair wearing a cute blue dress. She’s also examining a photograph. She catches him looking at her, and they both share a smile. There was a small understanding in there, _I’m glad you’re actually here for the art._

He resumes looking back at the photo. What a melancholic shot, he thinks. Then he feels someone next to him, it’s Jaejoong who has slightly swollen lips. He doesn’t make a comment on it. 

"I finally found you, Yunho has already begun his _Jung duties,_ " Jaejoong does air-quotes with his fingers. 

"I told you he was going to be busy."

"Yea, your brother’s a big deal around here."

Changmin offers him an arm, "Well, it’s you and me then," Jaejoong smiles before he takes it and they start roaming around the display. Changmin is fucking glad he’s got company. 

There are some eyes on them but neither care enough to notice.

 

* * *

 

Yunho is with colleagues and a few of their fiancés and wives. They talk, mostly about work, as they move from picture to picture, the others not really caring much about what’s on display.

He sees the Jaejoong and Changmin from afar. The two have stuck together for most of the night. Yunho watches as Changmin points to a photo, Jaejoong is nodding and listening intently. He can’t help but smile, Changmin’s probably nerding out on Jaejoong at that very moment, and he is relieved that they seem to be doing alright with each other’s company.

He notices the slightly disheveled patch of hair at the back of Jaejoong head, that was his fault. His mind comes to the dirty things he’s been doing to Jaejoong just a while ago.

"Yunho what do you think?"

"Ah. Yea, that’s great," he doesn’t even know if he said anything intelligible, he’s only half listening. He looks back to catch them again, but Changmin and Jaejoong are already gone from their spot.

At that point his head is floating again with the memory of Jaejoong’s heat against him.

Yunho hopes no one notices the way his shirt is slightly crumpled. He’s never fucked anyone in the middle of an event before, not when his parents, hell, his grandmother are in the same area. Before one, yes, after, definitely, but never during. 

Talk about being Jaejoong’s whenever-wherever-fucktoy.

If he’s being honest with himself though, he’s got no complaints. He’s lost hope in trying to figure out why he can’t get enough of Jaejoong. He figures it’s plain chemistry. There are people one is simply drawn to because the physical senses sends some strange biological signal to the brain. That’s got to be it.

The way Jaejoong sounds when he’s moaning against his ears, the way he tastes against his tongue, the way his sweaty skin rubs against his own. All those things make his brain go high wire and his body reacts almost helplessly. 

He needs to drink more to keep himself fucking sane, maybe alcohol would drown his senses. There he is in the middle of a photography exhibit, everyone talking business but his mind is just screaming sex and Jaejoong. 

"Yunho, I heard the Kyung’s are trying to warm up to your father?" He almost jumps in surprise at the mention of his name, and he tries to listen,"Apparently their daughter is coming back from her studies in Paris, and she wants to meet you," he hears one of the girls.

"What? It’s all groundless rumours."

"Yea, besides he’s got Shinhye right? When are you asking her out again?"

"Are you kidding me, she’s too young for him." 

"Jung is still enjoying the bachelor life."

Yunho only fakes a laugh and brings the champagne glass on his lips and a familiar scent hits him. Yunho realises his fingers still smell like lube mixed with cum. The scent assaults his senses, and as if his already dirty thoughts were not bad enough, it turns him on even more. He feels like a horny teenager. Heat envelopes him, blood rushing to his crotch. He has to take care of it soon. 

He gets separated from his group not long after, he gives a few polite greetings to the other people coming up to him, but even without realising it, his eyes are unknowingly searching for Jaejoong.

He almost feels like he’s in a spell, because now he just wants him. 

He’s talking to a senior partner of another law firm when he finally spots Jaejoong again. He is talking to Changmin but Jaejoong catches him at from the side of his eyes and acknowledges him with a smile.

Yunho doesn’t return it though. Then their eyes meet, and Yunho looks at him with intended eyes.

Jaejoong immediately knows what he’s doing. Yunho’s just staring him down hungrily, he takes a drink from his champagne again.

God, he knows what Yunho is trying to do and he’s not far from turning into a horny mess, just face turning red from heat right next to Changmin.

And then Yunho does the unthinkable and actually takes a small kitten lick off his fingers. Jaejoong freezes, and his pants feel tight and he shamelessly makes up a lame lie to excuse himself as he starts moving to the bathroom again. Not a minute later Yunho is also there.

"In public, Yunho? Really?" Jaejoong confronts him, pushing him against the wall when he enters.

Yunho just gives a smug laugh. "I’ll fuck you and this time I’ll lick you clean too." He gives Jaejoong an open mouth kiss, "Fuck the smell of your cum on my fingers makes me want to taste you so bad. Turn around." 

Jaejoong feels rough hands on his waist, guiding him to face the sink. Yunho unfastens his belt hastily and pulls his pants down to his knees. He can see himself against he mirror, mouth open, eyes half lidded, he sees Yunho disappear from his view as he kneels down. 

He bites back a moan when he feels Yunho’s hot breath against his asshole, and it’s soon replaced by a wet warm tongue. 

Yunho laps on him, kissing and licking. His essence is still there, he can taste it, and he knows Jaejoong is still stretched from earlier but he takes the lube from his pocket smearing it all over, and inserts two fingers just to be safe. Moving them inside, playing more than anything else. He smirks, pleased with himself as he hears the strained noise Jaejoong makes.

Yunho brings himself up and catches Jaejoong looking at their reflection. Soon Yunho is unzipping his own pants to get his cock out, and their eyes don’t disconnect as he guides his member to his entrance. Jaejoong takes a sharp breath in, Yunho leans himself forward, a hand holding onto Jaejoong’s jaw before he licks the side of his ear, all still looking at their reflection.

Jaejoong looks perfectly lewd, glassy eyed, swollen mouth half open, his hot breath fogging the mirror in front of him. Yunho pushes in a little bit more and Jaejoong’s hand grips the edge of the sink. He clenches around him.

He moves again, liking the way he sees Jaejoong biting his lip, holding back a whimper through the mirror.

Fuck, if he had the time he’d take it slow just so he can watch the way Jaejoong’s face reacts when he moves and takes him closer to the edge.

Jaejoong hears the faint chattering of the people passing by outside. Through the wall, he hears the clanking of champagne glasses and the subdued laughs of the crowd. Amidst it all, he also hears Yunho's hips slapping against his ass and his voice groaning against his ears and it feels good. It always feels good. 

"Fuck I feel so dirty."

Yunho's eyes stares at Jaejoong's through the mirror. His tongue darted out to lick Jaejoong's earlobe and groaned, "You love it."

 Jaejoong reached behind until he's holding Yunho's ass—gripping the flesh and urging him to fuck him harder and faster and more, just more. "I do."

 

* * *

 

Changmin has sneaked himself to the rooftop of the gallery, enjoying being alone, and being far away from everyone else.

A joint that he’s managed to smuggle in is in between his fingers and he’s trying to countdown to when he could finally leave. He wonders what Yunho’s family will think if they find out he is up there, in a restricted area, smoking narcotics. What a scandal that will be.

The actual artwork can be observed in less than an hour, but of course there’s more mingling, and some toasts by the end of the night so they all have to stay, not that he’s any significant part of all that, but his ride home is Yunho so he figures he has to wait until everything is done.

At least the moon is beautiful that night. Full and bright.

He contemplates a little bit about how vastly different his and Yunho’s lives are, he hasn’t thought about it in a while. 

It’s not his first time accompanying his brother into such things, he’s gone to a bunch of mixers and parties before, specially when he just got into Yonsei, it was Yunho’s way of getting him to fit in, to merge their two world of sorts, but it never worked. Not that he even tried, well, he did, a little bit, only for his brother.

Yunho was basically Prince Wesley and Changmin felt like he was that troll from under the bridge. He’s still close with Yunho, they’re brothers, and no one can take that away from them. They’ve spent most of their life together, but within a short period of years that has turned into nothing but a distant memories; sometimes he wishes they could just go back, and Yunho didn’t have to be a Jung.

He hears footsteps from the opening door and he doesn’t have to look to know it’s Jaejoong. He is slightly surprised that he found him. He knows he’s disappeared to fool around with his brother.

Yunho’s always had that reputation even when they were younger, and Jaejoong? You’d just have to look at him to know, he was basically sex on legs. 

Regardless of where he’s been or what —who— he’s been doing, Changmin feels a sense of calm when Jaejoong stands next to him behind the railings. Something shifts, and he somehow feels closer to home. He doesn’t know how Jaejoong does that. 

"Thought I’d find you here," he says.

"Yup. Tired of all the fun downstairs."

Jaejoong laughs. Changmin makes a resolve that he likes that, making him laugh.

Jaejoong falls into a quietness after though, and that doesn’t get past Changmin.

"The exhibit was actually excellent, but damn has it turned into a miserable night for me. I don’t fit in here at all." Changmin says, blowing a smoke into the cold air. "I’ve had three people ask me whose son I was, fucking tough question considering I never even really met my father. And when I tell them I’m Shim Changmin, they wonder if I’m the senator’s son, I answer no, and they go, ‘The Shims with the shipping business in Taiwan?’. I’ve got no shit-cocking clue who those people are, and I’m sure as hell we’re not related." 

Changmin passes the joint, and continues, "It’s tiring you know? It’s not like any of my answers would please any of them. I had eye contact with Yunho’s grandmother for about two seconds, I think she actually lost all the blood from her face before she decided to pretend I didn’t exist. God. Only Yunho can fit in a world like this." 

He turns to Jaejoong who has just blown a smoke, he’s looking down wistfully, he follows his gaze and sees that Jaejoong was looking at Yunho. He is out by the garden, chatting up with a group of people.

"He does. He fits in here perfectly," Jaejoong says sincerely.

Jaejoong can see it all from up there. He watches Yunho, in that world of champagne and diamonds. He is there with his hand at the small of the back of some beautiful young lady in a red dress accentuated with precious stones, talking, smiling and laughing. He’s charming, and handsome, and he looks like he can rule them all, Jaejoong knows he can.

He feels so far away from him. It hasn’t been long since they were just in the bathroom earlier, doing the most intimate thing you can do with someone, and yet he feels so far, so detached from him. 

His mind is a little confused because he’s never been on this side of Yunho’s world before. It’s a little hard to wrap his head around that. At least when they were having sex he had him, but it ends in just that. He had to realise that quickly, just after they fucked, Yunho had been pulled away from him by someone more important. Right after Yunho exited the bathroom someone pulled him over to talk about a stock investment, and Yunho didn’t even spare him a glance.

"Hey," he jumps a little bit at Changmin’s voice. "He’s charming isn’t he? When he’s in his suit and he talks about all these things and you can tell how intelligent he is. But you know what? Yunho, my hyung, inside he’s still that kid from Naju. The Yunho we know, that’s him, generous, kind, a naughty little shit," he says it because he recognises the feeling of distance in Jaejoong’seyes.

Jaejoong smiles at that. "Sounds like him."It just brings a pang in his chest, because yes, Yunho is all that, and someone, some day is going to have all of that. The side of him who walks among these people, and the side of him he gets to see in their own little world in the confines of his penthouse. How lucky would that person be?

"Look at the way he fits in here. It used to baffle me, how he can be both," Changmin distracts him from his thoughts.

"Tell me about it, it’s insane."

"Right?"

"You’ve never been on the spotlight?" Jaejoong says trying to stir the conversation away from Yunho.

"Ha! A lot of korean tabloids focus on celebrities in the entertainment industry, but when I moved in here, some news sites had a field day. _The half brother of the Jung Woosung’s Only Son Arrives in Seoul_. It was ridiculous."

Jaejoong finally breaks a laug. "Wow. You were a fucking headliner," he teases.

"Shut up." Changmin replies, pleased that it seems like he’s somehow gotten Jaejoong out of his spell. He’s light headed when he talks again. "You’re a looker yourself, there were a few people who wanted to get a hold of you, and that’s a miracle considering that you were with _me_."

"People flirt, they always do, but it doesn’t mean anything," his tone changes.

"Plus you’re already dating my brother."

"Listen Changmin, Yunho and I we’re—…" He starts, Changmin looks at him, and he doesn’t know why it’s hard to say it out loud, what he and Yunho are, rather what they aren’t. "Nevermind. You know what? _You_ should try to get laid, take someone home tonight,” Jaejoong stretches, raises his hands and leans his back against the railing to feel the cold air. The high is kicking in.

"That would give Kyuhyun and Victoria a run for their money.”

"Who?"

Changmin stares at Jaejoong who is looking at him with confusion. Ahh. He’s not told him about the romantic pity fest yet.

Just then he decides he trusts him enough to tell him about the predicament of his joke of a love life.

And so he does.

The two of them are sitting on the floor by the time he finishes telling his story. It’s a short version of how he saw Victoria at the record store. Changmin _loved_ her at first sight because she had just bought several records of 60’s rock and roll albums, she knew her music well, they had the same taste and he’s never met a girl like that before.

They had common friends, Junsu had invited her to some music gigs and movie screenings because he knew Changmin liked her, they were always out with a group though. All was fine, until a few weeks ago when Kyuhyun decided to tag along and started flirting with her.

"So you’ve never even told Kyuhyun?"

“Nope."

"And they’re sleeping together?"

“He’s probably licking her pussy as we speak.”

"Why haven’t you told her about what you feel?"

"I don’t know. It’s like she’s the only person I’ve met who’s like that and I guess if I mess it up, I just know I’d never meet anyone like her again, so I couldn’t bring myself to risk that. Plus, there’s no reason for her to like me anyway."

"Oh Changmin. You know what’s attractive? A guy who knows what he wants and goes for it,” Jaejoong says, moving a finger to poke his cheek, "And I don’t think you know how hot you are!"

Changmin can feel his ears reddening. "Stop patronising me."

"Seriously. One day you’re going to be successful, write a beautiful song, she’s going to hear it and wish it was for her, and by the time she does, you’re going to have someone who has the same taste of music as you—even better, someone who'll play music with you!"

Somehow, Changmin believes that. Jaejoong is smiling deeply at him, and under the moonlight he notices the small moles against his pale skin, how his eyes have a shade of brown. How smooth his skin is, and how it’s glowing against the light.

It was just like that other day in his room again. He liked having him by his side like this.

"You know what your situation reminds me of?"

"What?"

"That song by Frank and Nancy Sinatra!"

Jaejoong begins to sing, he’s looking at the stars thoughtfully,

_Your perfume_

_Fills my head_

_The stars get red_

Changmin laughs, and starts to sing with him.

_And oh the night's so blue_

_And then I go_

_And spoil it all_

_By saying something stupid_

_Like I love you_

Changmin knows he’ll have that song in his head from then on, except it won’t really remind him of Victoria.

 

* * *

 

Yunho’s phone vibrates mid conversation, he knows it’s rude to check it at the moment, knowing that it’s probably not urgent but he excuses himself anyway.

He picks his phone out his pocket to see a photo of himself accompanied with the message "I spy with my little eye a loser in a suit," the sentence doesn’t make sense but he laughs to himself. He looks up to the direction where the photo could be taken from and he quickly finds two figures two stories above him at the rooftop. 

Changmin and Jaejoong are flailing their hands in the air when they realise he’s spotted them, he shakes his head.

At least they’re having fun.

The look on Yunho’s eyes, although far from them is clear: _You idiots_. But he is amused nonetheless.

Another message comes. "Care to join us?"

He was caught up in a conversation about an after party at some high end strip club —headed of course by one of his colleagues who’s already married. Nothing would have been better than him running off to join Jaejoong and Changmin at that moment, but he pockets his phone and joins the group again.

Shortly after, the ending toasts finally arrive and he listens to his step mother’s mechanical speech about thanking the committee and congratulating everyone for the successful exhibit. It takes another two hours before everyone starts leaving. 

Yunho reunites with Jaejoong and Changmin before they head home, Changmin was a little giggly and Jaejoong was quiet, he knows both are coming down from a high, but he doesn’t comment on it. He could’ve used some weed too.

The car ride is quite silent.

"How was your night?" Yunho tries to stir up a conversation.

"Well, you know this, but your crowd is horrible. The art was great though, and getting high on the rooftop with Jaejoong made it all worth it," Changmin blurts out honestly, and it makes Yunho laugh.

It wasn’t a perfect night, Yunho knows that and he probably has a lot to apologise for to both of them, but he’s happy it wasn’t a complete disaster. Changmin sounded like he enjoyed somehow.

He glances at Jaejoong who is beside him. Jaejoong shares a brief smile but he returns to looking out the window wordlessly.

The brothers talk a little bit more on the way back, Yunho telling Changmin a little bit more about the background on how the exhibit came to be and why the organisers chose Ueda Shouji, his brother listens intently and adds a few of his thoughts on the pieces that were selected to be on display.

Jaejoong is still silent. Yunho knows something is wrong.

Changmin soon gets off at his place, he doesn’t forget to say thanks to Yunho and just as he was about to go in, Jaejoong rolls down the car window. "You better finish that song and let me hear it!" he reminds Changmin and the other just nods.

"Goodnight!" When Jaejoong shuts the windows again, he’s back to his quiet self, and Yunho doesn’t know why or how to make it better.

He lays a hand on Jaejoong’s thigh and rubs it in hopes to comfort him somehow. "You alright?"

"Yea. I’m fine."

"You’re coming back home with me, right?" He asks hopefully, they’d planned it out that way earlier.

"Yea. Uhm. About that, is it okay if you drop me off at my place?"

Yunho pauses for a bit. He doesn’t really know what’s wrong. When he was with Changmin earlier he seemed to be fine. "Look, after…after what we did in the bathroom I’m sorry that I couldn’t make it back to you—"

"Yunho." Jaejoong interjects him. "What are you talking about?"

"You’re upset."

"No, I’m not. I’m just tired and I’m not up to do anything more than lie in bed and sleep tonight."

Sleep and rest, they could do that. They could totally do that at his place.

Yunho was about to offer, to tell him that he’ll make some warm tea when they get back home. He’ll bring it to him in bed, it would relax him. He’d spoon him and make sure he doesn’t get up until late in the afternoon the next, and Jaejoong would be warm against him, his breaths lulling him to sleep. That sounded like a good way to end the night. 

But he doesn’t say a thing. Yunho only nods because he realises he’s gone ahead of himself. He’ll be over stepping if he offers. 

It’s fair that Jaejoong equates spending time with him to just them having sex.

"Yea. Okay, I’ll drop you off."

Jaejoong mutters a "Thank you."

That’s totally understandable. Jaejoong wants to sleep, just sleep and rest,  and Yunho knows he’s not that person, he’s not the one who gets to hold him at night and bring him comfort after a tiring day. They’re not in that kind of relationship.

 

* * *

 

When Changmin arrives home, the apartment is completely dark, only a dim light is coming from the space between the floor and the door of Kyuhyun’s room. He knows Victoria is in there too, but he just makes his way straight to his room.

Changmin doesn’t know what kind of sick joke his heart is playing on him, but that night when he heads to his room, he doesn’t give a damn about Kyuhyun and Victoria and the insane noises coming from their side of the wall.

No, that night he hears broken english trying to sing Frank Sinatra’s Something Stupid, he feels clumsy fingers unbuttoning the top two buttons of his shirt, he remembers beautiful eyes close to tears laughing behind the disappearing smoke.

He thinks about Jaejoong.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much again to @kimjaejiggae for beta-ing!  
> Huhu. We've come to the exhibit parts. Haha. I had such a hard time balancing character interactions here.  
> I hope you guys enjoyed (?) a bigger glimpse of Yunho's world.  
> And aaah~ JaeMin. :p


	6. If I Fell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As if right on cue, the phone that’s currently on the bar island vibrates and lights up. It’s a message and when Jaejoong catches a glimpse of the sender, he immediately flips his phone over. He doesn’t do it quick enough for Heechul to miss though.
> 
> "Holy shit, was that Yunho?"
> 
> Jaejoong doesn’t answer but instead scrunches his nose.
> 
> "You’re avoiding Yunho!"

"The hell Jaejoong, what has gotten into you?" Heechul says incredulously as he hands Jaejoong a whisky on water. He’d just watched Jaejoong have a full out make-out session with a guy at the dark corner of the bar, and he’s pretty sure they just exchanged numbers too. 

"What?" Jaejoong shrugs before taking a drink, and putting down the phone he’s been fiddling. 

"Some time ago, you blew Minwoo off for no reason at all. That almost ruined it for me and Kyunghoon by the way! And now you’re going home with a different guy every night." Heechul leans against him, it was a slow night and he could afford a conversation. 

"No. I went home with Yuta thrice, and Soohyun twice and Dongwoo and Hyunbin one time each, that’s not one guy every night," he rolls his eyes before propping an elbow and playing with the stirrer on his drink.

Heechul only looks at him dubiously.

Maybe he has been philandering a lot this week, but so what? He is a healthy man with an appetite for sex. He’s careful. He—kind of—knows the men he’s sleeping with, they’re decent people, he hasn’t been irresponsible with condoms and all his partners have been honest—he hopes—about how clean they are. 

 Hell, rock stars have slept with more people _in a day_. 

He’s an adult man who has a penchant for sex. That’s no crime. He’s single. He wants to have fun, and sex is a lot of fun. That’s all.

That’s all. That’s all there is to it. 

"Something is going on that you’re not telling me." Heechul remarks, not taking his studying eyes off him. 

As if right on cue, the phone that’s currently on the bar island vibrates and lights up. It’s a message and when Jaejoong catches a glimpse of the sender, he immediately flips his phone over. He doesn’t do it quick enough for Heechul to miss though. 

"Holy shit, was that Yunho?" 

Jaejoong doesn’t answer but instead scrunches his nose.

"You’re avoiding Yunho!" 

"I’m not." 

"That was Yunho and you basically looked like you wanted to throw your phone! Ha! Trouble in paradise, Kim? I told you, fuck buddy arrangements never work out," Jaejoong still doesn’t reply but Heechul just goes on, not really minding the one sided conversation. Once Heechul opens his mouth, it’s a loose train, "God. Kim Jaejoong, are you done with him? Because I’ve heard enough stories from you about his cock and I wouldn’t mind jumping that. Can you tell him I’m the guy who taught you that blowjob trick he likes so much? I wouldn’t mind being a rebound sex friend."

Jaejoong only takes another sip from his whiskey as Heechul continues, "And damn. What was it? Did he do something to turn you off? Because really, you make him sound like such a sex machine. Remember that one time you arrived here at 9:30 in the morning? I was just opening up but man you came from his place and you were so fucked, you couldn’t even sit down but you had the most sated look on your face, and all you could say was ‘so fucking good’! I can’t imagine how that could go south—"Heechul pauses, and then he volunteers the most dramatic gasp Jaejoong has heard, "Or…that’s the problem isn’t it, it was _too good?_ " 

That finally earns him a look from Jaejoong, one that’s silently telling him to fuck off. But Heechul knows there’s more behind it.  "Are you…falling in love with him?"

The moment the words ht his ears, Jaejoong laughs condescendingly, "Of all the things you’ve said, that’s got to be the dumbest one yet."

 Heechul crosses his arms and gives him a challenging look, "Then what is it?"

Jaejoong hasn’t processed it himself either, the thing that was bubbling in him. After what happened at the exhibit, seeing Yunho that night, the weird car conversation, fucking in the restroom, and feeling a little bit neglected when he knew he wasn’t in the position to be. It’s all jumbled in his mind.

"I don’t know."

 "Looks like to me that you do, but you’re not admitting it, I’ve seen you with Yunho—"

"No. I think, I think I just got jealous."Jaejoong remembers the twinge he felt, seeing how Yunho so charmingly talks to his friends, making girls swoon and men have googly eyes all over him, conversing about things he can never relate to. He saw it all.

 "That’s a sign of falling in love"

Jaejoong only sighs, because he’s ran that in his head too, but it’s not that. He knows more than anyone else. Love was a flittering feeling, a fire that holds you in comforting warmth, it doesn’t burn you. Jaejoong knows it, he knows his heart well enough, he’s picked up its pieces too many times not to know.

"You’ve known me long enough to know I know what love looks like, Heechul, so when I say this is not it, it’s not." Jaejoong says with a coldness in his voice.

Heechul recognises his mistake and keeps quiet.

"Being jealous, does not equate to being in love. No, love, love takes a lot more."Jaejoong bites his lips, and he has a familiar pensive look that Heechul hasn’t seen in a while. Jaejoong’s head is travelling back to memories he didn’t want to remember. "I know what love feels like," He mutters, and Heechul looks at him with concern. 

"I knew what it felt like." he then whispers to himself again.

 

* * *

 

Yunho is looking out the Shanghai skyline through the glass window of one of the restaurants the city’s Park Hyatt Hotel had to offer. It’s some 2 Michelin Star restaurant that boasts a direct access to a cellar that hosted 300 types of wine.

He and a few other lawyers were there as a support to one of their senior partners for a settlement regarding one of their biggest clients. It took a few days of meetings, going over demands, and reviewing files, to finally come to an agreement that both parties were content with. That night the CEO of the company they were representing took their team out on a courtesy dinner, it was more of a congratulatory party. 

They’d just finished an eight course meal, and most of the other men have already left for the casino, but Yunho stayed behind, talking more business over wine with some of the older people of the group.

The hardest part of the job was over and they just had to stay a few more days to settle more of the minor details in paper. 

The CEO makes a comment about how odd it is to see Yunho in the table with them, when many years ago it had been his father who would be sitting across. It was like looking through a time machine, everyone else grew older except for Jung Woosung, he remarked. Yunho only laughed and it had been the last thing he’d been told before everyone retired for the night.

It’s still early and the boys were having jolly ass time burning money they didn’t need, but he was never really interested in gambling, his mother was never for it. He decides not to join even though he’s received several messages asking him what time he was coming down. All he does is ignore.

He has a lipstick stained napkin with the number of a brunette he flirted with at the hotel lounge’s cocktail bar earlier that day. If he wanted to, he could call her, have sex and have a good time himself, but he just wasn’t in the mood for it. 

He was with someone the night before, he almost couldn’t finish, not until he asked if he could take her from the back, not until he had his hands on her ass. Not until he closed his eyes, blocking out the feminine whimpers coming out of her, instead replacing it in his head with a much deeper voice.

Maybe he could look for a man, he knows a club. He ponders over it, he would love to have strong hands tug his hair, he’d love to feel a hard sticky cock rubbing against his abdomen. But whoever he picks up wouldn’t have the same slender waist, nor the sexy tattoos plastered on pale skin, he wouldn’t know how to suck his dick the way he likes it.

He wasn’t in the mood for sex. 

Correction: He wasn’t in the mood for sex with anyone else but Jaejoong. 

He thinks it makes absolute logical sense. He’s been sleeping with Jaejoong more than anyone else for months now, Jaejoong knows his body, he knows what he likes in bed, his turn ons, they have a rhythm together. Coming from an exhausting succession of work days, getting together with someone unfamiliar was just too tiring. 

He didn’t want to have to figure out if his partner liked it if he pulled their hair or if they wouldn’t mind having their mouth fucked or if they would rather sit on his face. Who had the energy? 

He arrives at his spacious presidential suite. It’s empty but the moment he eyes the luxurious bed all, he could imagine was Jaejoong against the 3000 count Egyptian cotton sheets. He sees him sitting on the lounge chairs, touching himself and asking Yunho to watch until he comes.

Fuck, he needed Jaejoong there. 

Other people stress eat, Yunho gets horny. 

They had phone sex the other day. Just a call, although if it were up to him, they’d rather do a video. He hasn’t seen Jaejoong in a while, but when he called earlier, Jaejoong said he wasn’t in a place appropriate for sex at all. 

Yunho feels hot just thinking of that. Jaejoong was probably at work, and he envisions him excusing himself to go to some empty storage room, touching himself trying to hide his husky voice on the phone, trying to follow everything Yunho tells him to do, face flushed, skin blazing.

" _Jae, are you trying your hardest to keep quiet? Why don’t you just let it all out so everyone can know that even when I’m not there, I can still make you scream my name?"_  

_"Ugh. You annoying fucker. You know how noisy I am," it’s the only response he gets along with quiet short breaths. Even without seeing Jaejoong, just by his breathing, Yunho knew when he was close, and that made him smile in between stroking his own cock._

He feels himself getting hard at the memory.

Yunho wants more. He can’t just call again, can he? 

He can’t, not without sounding too needy.  

And it wasn’t like he had no other choice. There were so many options for him to actually get laid for real. 

It wasn’t just the lipstick stained napkin with a number.

He could call the young lady he fuckec the night before.

There was also that younger lawyer working in the area with a nice tight ass whome he slept with during his last business trip in Shanghai, the younger man told him that he could call any time he was in town.  

The rather sexy receptionist at their client’s office was leering at him earlier too, and he has his contact details.

Heck, their client offered a high end prostitute as a "gift of gratitude" for him but he declined. A part of him wondered if his father ever took up offers like those when he was on business trips back when he was with his mother. He couldn’t give a fuck if he was cheating on Jungsoo though.

He makes his way to the sofa turning on the TV, but not paying attention to it all. He grabs his phone out of his suit pocket and a pill bottle snags and falls as he pulls it out. He freezes a little bit at the sight of it. He’d almost forgotten that was there. 

He doesn’t pick it up, sitting back properly on the sofa again. He didn’t need it. 

Yunho knows he could have anyone to take care of his needs, but no one would satisfy him. He chooses to contemplate over whether or not he should just call Jaejoong.

It doesn’t help that Jaejoong hasn’t been the most responsive to his messages or calls. He feels like a spoiled kid who wants something more desperately the more he’s being denied it.

He grips the phone. He can’t call him. 

He stares at the bottle on the floor. Maybe if his cock won’t get up for anyone else who’s available maybe a pill can help him relax. When was the last time he took one anyway? He needs something to clear his mind.

But his thoughts go back to Jaejoong, and his voice, and the way he asks him to fuck harder. He can’t seem to escape him. Getting high won’t help.

In the end, he decides to take a shower and take care of the problem himself. 

Fucking hilarious how he could have been getting slammed that night, but he finds himself in the shower, like a hornet teenager, jerking himself off, masturbating to the memories of a guy who’s miles away. 

 Jaejoong isn’t even his.

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong’s knuckles are white as he grips on the headboard of a bed that’s foreign to him. He’s close, so close, he’s moaning out loud, and he just wants to reach an orgasm so bad. He wasn’t even being slutty, he just really does want to be fucked harder. 

He was with a guy named Changwook this time. 

Changwook was great, but he isn’t fucking him as hard as he’d like. He would’ve come ages ago, if only Changwook wasn’t so lackluster. 

It’s not that the sex wasn’t good. It was, but it was not as good as it could be. 

He grabs his own cock and pumps himself, impatient for a release, and then his orgasm starts building up faster. He feels himself tightening up, and Changwook’s thrusts get more erratic. He’s getting closer too. 

Finally, the guy is more consistently hitting his sweet spot. It only takes a few more seconds and Changwook finishes before he does. Jaejoong works on himself with a few more strokes before eventually reaching his own climax…barely one. 

"That was amazing," Changwook says, heavily breathing as he lies right next to him.

Jaejoong only hums in reply, because he doesn’t want to lie. It was okay. Good at best, but not amazing.

He knows he’s a ten in bed, but he’s not going to have mind-blowing sex every time he sleeps with someone. It’s a hit or miss with partners.

Jaejoong closes his eyes, he’s spent. Spent from trying too hard to chase a mediocre orgasm.

Changwook offers him his bathroom for a shower, and he takes the offer. Jaejoong knows Changwook was expecting him to ask if they could go together, but he doesn’t suggest it.  

He gets out of the bed to pick up the discarded clothes, which were on a rather collected pile. When he gets to the bathroom, he takes out the phone in his jeans pocket.

Nothing from Yunho. He figures he’s too busy having fun in Shanghai, probably getting laid too.  

There is a text from Changmin though, just asking if they were a still go for tomorrow. They’ve hung out a few times since the exhibit, and they were going to have song writing session and he finally convinced Changmin to perform at the open mic at the bar. 

He smiles at the message and replies. He’s actually really looking forward to that.

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong is coming in a few minutes.

Changmin’s room is already the tidiest it has been in months. No embarrassing underwear strewn around? Check. Lame magazines tucked inside a locked cabinet? Check. His coolest records "naturally"scattered on his desk, not too obvious that he’s planned for them to be seen? Check.  

He looks in his drawers again just to make sure there is nothing shameful to be found in them, because, obviously, ransacking his drawers would be something they’d get into for the rest of the afternoon. 

He doesn’t know why he’s so fucking nervous. It’s just Jaejoong. Oh god. It’s Jaejoong. Jaejoong was way too cool to be hanging out in his apartment.

The buzzer for his unit rings and he looks down the window to see Jaejoong standing by the doorway of their apartment building.  

"Jae!" He calls out, waving his arms and Jaejoong looks up and grins at him. He signals him to go up, and so he does. Changmin opens the door for him.

"Hey, you ready to work on this?" Jaejoong gives a crooked smile, and Changmin forgets everything. 

This was Jaejoong. Warm and open.

In no time, the they are both sitting on his bedroom floor. Changmin’s got a guitar on his lap, and Jaejoong is fiddling with his Mac. It had some fancy program used to compose music. 

No joint or alcohol this time. Just a big bottle of room temperature water they both shared, but barely touched.

Jaejoong is concentrating, nothing but the sound of humming coming out of him, earphones on his ears. Changmin watches him, brows knitted, replaying parts of the song over and over again.

They were working on the song Changmin shared on that afternoon they were high and listening to Rubber Soul at Jaejoong’s.

They’ve decided to call it 'In a Different Life'.

Changmin’s finished writing the lyrics and the main melody, and now Jaejoong is working his magic.

They’ve recorded his voice and the guitar in the shower box earlier. Jaejoong says it’s not as good as a recording studio, but he can patch something up just so Changmin can hear what it could sound like on record.

Changmin is in awe at how good Jaejoong is at this, creating music. 

He only watches him. He’s already learned how to read Jaejoong’s face. Jaejoong smiles a little bit and Changmin thinks that means he’s finally happy with a tune. He chews his lips when he’s trying to figure something out. He scrunches his nose when he makes a mistake. When he’s frustrated, he pouts and his eyebrows meet, making cute wrinkles on his forehead. 

It was quite amusing.

 Changmin plays the guitar absentmindedly while Jaejoong is editing.

" _If I fell in love with you…would you promise to be true…and help me understand…_ " he whispers the song lazily into the air.  

Then he hears Jaejoong knock on the floor anxiously. His eyes focus on Jaejoong again. A small grunt. His fingers quickly glide on the track pad. He bobs his head to a melody. A nose scrunch here, a lip bite there. 

And then he stops. 

Jaejoong puts his hands on either side of the earphones and closes his eyes. 

Changmin watches the music bar on the screen progress until it comes to a halt, and then Jaejoong finally opens his eyes.

Removing the earphones, he turns to him with a serious expression and then breaks the brightest smile Changmin has ever seen. "I think we got it." 

Without warning Jaejoong comes near him, Changmin hitches his breath as he pulls the earphones over his head, they are clearly too close. "Listen." 

The song starts playing in his hears. The familiar gentles strum of the chords hits him, his own voice comes in, then the second guitar and the subtle base comes in. The rhythms settle in, and he hasn’t heard it this way yet, but it’s way better than he imagined. 

He looks over to Jaejoong who has his hands clasped, he’s still biting his lips as if hoping that he would like it.

Of course he likes it. Jaejoong is an amazing musician. 

The song finally ends. 

"So?"

He removes the gadget from his ears and grins. "I love it." 

Out of nowhere Jaejoong tackles, like he’s more excited about his song than he is. He’s on the floor with the other man on top.  "I swear to god when people hear your song, they are going to love it. Heechul’s bar manager would fucking love you."

Oh. That. Yea. The open mic that Jaejoong signed him up for.  

Changmin almost forgot about that and he panics a little bit.

They’ll love him? Will they really?

He must be making a weird face because Jaejoong looks at him questioningly, "What?"

"Are you sure I should be doing this?" 

"Changmin. You heard yourself right?" 

"Yea."

"You said you loved it?"

"But that’s you—" 

"No. I only helped you. I can’t believe you’re not confident after hearing yourself. That’s how you sound. Good. I know. Trust me."

Changmin kind of does. "Okay," he inhales. Okay. He’s going to perform. 

"Great." Jaejoong smiles again.

"But your promise! Show me your songs!"

Jaejoong grunts and gets off him. "I was hoping you’d forget about that."

"Are you kidding me? I’m not going to let you off your end of the deal."

Jaejoong would’ve been annoyed and tried to get himself out of it, but he is too pleased with himself and too much of a good mood to deny Changmin.

He hasn’t created anything new in a long time, and making it with this kid felt like such a breath of fresh air. They made a good pair.

Changmin could hear a few of his songs. He usually never really lets anyone hear anything he’s written until he’s finished with them, but he definitely has a soft spot for Changmin. "Okay. I’ll let you hear. They’re all unfinished though."He heads to his laptop, and Changmin crouches just behind him, they’re so close he can feel the other’s breath against the back of his neck, but it’s comfortable. 

It’s nice.

 

* * *

 

It’s 2 am in the morning, and the world is as quiet as it could be. Jaejoong is in his sofa, keyboard on the coffee table, a guitar on his lap, a note book flipped open on a pillow beside him.

He’s got a tune in his head that won’t leave him be.

He’d arrived home just a few hours ago after spending the whole day at Changmin’s and leaving quite late. They never left his room, Changmin only getting out to pick up the pizza delivery they ordered. 

He only had a few slices, because he doesn’t really feel like eating when he’s working or excited about something.

He smiles at the memory of the Changmin though. He was a monster, finishing everything else. The guy would nonchalantly take slices and bites as they talked. Jaejoong thinks Changmin doesn’t even notice he’s eating.

As promised Jaejoong showed him a few of his songs.  

Changmin talked about how profoundly sad and deep they were, and how he wished he could write something of such intensity some day.

Jaejoong warned him that maybe he needed to be fucked up to be able to do so. It’s half a joke. 

There was one, a song called Runaway, that Changmin particularly liked. It was a song about finally saying goodbye to a lover.

When Changmin heard it, he said it was a masterpiece. It was the first time he heard Jaejoong sing at a lower register too and there was awe in his eyes, it was beyond comical. "I can’t believe you can sing with such a totally different voice," Changmin said, looking at him in disbelief and astonishment. 

Jaejoong thinks its flattering, how much credit he gives him. He knows he’s not that great, but he’s not going to lie and say Changmin’s reactions didn’t make his stomach flutter. 

He didn’t need an admirer though, he wanted someone to bounce off ideas with, and for all it’s worth he really does think they work well together.  

Changmin has convinced him to continue Runaway, he had tried but no words are coming out of him. He appreciates the enthusiasm Changmin has for the song.  

He didn’t let him know, but he doesn’t think he’s ready to go back to the mindset he had when he’d written the song originally. 

He has something else brewing up in his head though. Something that is different from anything he’s written before. Something more cheerful. Something warm, and the melody just flows out him. 

He has nothing else on his mind and he somehow feels lighter. Lighter means you’ve lost something though. 

His phone vibrates in the middle of writing down a few notes. He frowns.  

It’s from Heechul. 

 **Changwook is here. He’s asking about you and wants your number. Do I give it?**  

It’s the first night in days that Jaejoong was in his own home. No unfamiliar body against him. No moaning nor slapping skin. The thought of sex has not crossed his mind the whole day, and he didn’t mind it at all. 

**Don’t**

Before putting his phone down, he also notes that there is nothing from Yunho, it's strange that he's waiting just so he can ignore him. 

He goes back to the keyboard humming away, content with ignoring the rest of the world for the time being. 

 

* * *

 

There’s a sudden influx of people entering Yunho’s line of sight when he exists the immigration toll the airport. 

There were kids playing around the baggage carousel, a couple from a honeymoon have their hips attached as they walked with their luggage, Japanese businessmen were checking their watches as they waited in line for tax claim. 

Yunho had a splitting headache when he arrived. Thank god he didn’t have check in baggage to grab, and that a chauffeur was already waiting for him at the pick up point. 

He heads straight to the exit, rubbing his head and checking his messages. It was only a three hour flight, but there was some drunk asshole in first class who the flight attendants couldn’t appease. It hadn’t been the most peaceful ride. 

It didn’t help that he was flying back early and alone, because of some trouble regarding the big merger he’s handling back in the Seoul office. 

When he steps out, he immediately sees a white Bentley he recognises by the curb. The chauffeur waiting for him opens the door, and he’s relieved that there is a mini bottle of Pinot Noir inside the car. He’s been moderately drinking through the flight, and he needs something to take the edge off some more before arriving at the office, but he's careful not to be anywhere near drunk though because he knows he has a long day of work ahead of him. 

"Good day, sir.” the chauffeur greets, but Yunho doesn’t answer.  

He leans back to the headboard, already thinking about how to deal with the work that is awaiting him. He’d just received a call from Sunny the night before, some problem about an overlooked document that would delay contract negotiations. 

There are so many things in his mind.  

Because of the abrupt trip going back to Seoul, he had to rake his brains out to finish some of the work in Shanghai, in addition, he had to plan out delegations of who was going to take the load he was leaving behind.  

He hasn’t even started reviewing the files Sunny sent him. 

He’s handling more things than any of his other colleagues with the same age. There was a lot of pressure as he was made junior partner 2 years earlier than average, he was the son of Jung Woosung after all, but h is father had made it clear from the start that he wasn’t going to breeze through just because he was family, and Yunho himself didn’t like getting anything without earning it.

The car comes to a halt and Yunho’s eyes bolt wide open, he didn’t even realise he had fallen asleep. 

He looks out the tinted window to the unfamiliar place. 

"Aren’t we supposed to be at the Jung building?” he questions, still a bit disoriented.

“No, sir. Mr. Jung gave me instructions to take you here."

Yunho is confused because they are in front of a French bistro.

"The reservation is under Mrs. Jung’s name, sir," the door is opened for him and he gets out.

When he enters the establishment he’s led to a booth where his father and step mother are drinking a glass of wine and sharing a plate of hors d'oeuvres. 

He was dressed for the office, not for a fancy bistro, he feels a little out of place. Sunny didn’t even give him a heads up on this lunch.

“Ah, Yunho! You’re here. I hope you had a good flight,” Jungsoo gets up to kiss him on the cheek and motions him to take a seat.

"Yunho, we ordered the steak au poivre for you,” his father gives him the small menu, "Here, choose a wine.”

He puts the menu down, much too confused and not really interested with lunch. "I—I don’t understand, I thought I had to be in the office right now, I got a call about some problems with the contract?" 

He watches his father take a deep breath. "About that…" 

Yunho is suddenly more alert. What is it this time?

"We’ll get to the details of the contract later but all these errors, Yunho. You’ve been given more than enough time to ensure these negotiations flow smoothly." 

"I already told you the client isn’t rushing and they change their minds over so many things it’s hard to appease both part—" 

"With that being said," it’s like Yunho is talking to a wall, "Your mother and I are very worried about you." 

_Stepmother._

Woosung needs to stop referring to her that way. Jungsoo is not his mother. His father needs to stop with that bullshit. He can respect Jungsoo, yes, but she is not his mother, and it’s not as if Jungsoo ever tries to be motherly to him anyway.

And worried? Did he fly back into some sort of alternate reality in Seoul? His father has never worried about him. 

"You seem to be distracted recently." 

Yunho doesn’t reply. He’s got no clue about what his father is trying to get at. 

"Where were you when your mother was trying to introduce you to one of her associates in the charity? Your grandmother was very excited for you to meet one of her friends' daughters." 

Yunho realises that they were talking about the exhibit from more than a week ago. 

He remembers that, he’d arrived late to join his stepmother and grandmother, because he was, in— 

…with Jaejoong

He can feel the blood rush out of his face.  

Did they…did someone see them?

"I—" 

But before he can answer, Jungsoo continues, "Your brother seemed to not have been around at that time also."

Yunho manages to release the breath he was holding. So it wasn’t about him and Jaejoong.  

Of course, they were implying he was off somewhere with Changmin. How did he not figure it out sooner? Him with his brother, ignoring all the people he should actually be talking to, forgetting the status quo and his social duties for the night. 

He’s relieved as hell that the conversation was nowhere near him and Jaejoong, but it doesn’t stop him for being angry anyway. 

Changmin.  

It’s always about Changmin or his mom that’s driving the Jung side of his family to be unreasonably upset. It happens whenever he tries to find some reconciliation between the two sides of him. His family seems to be dead set on erasing that part of him.

Changmin has done nothing to deserve any vile words or malicious assumptions from them. Nothing. Nothing at all.  

Yet they’ve always made it an issue. Changmin who was a bad influence on Yunho. Changmin who had no direction in life. Changmin the ungrateful bastard child who thanklessly wasted precious Jung money by leeching off them and eventually quitting university. 

As if half a semester of college funds would dig a hole in their pockets. Just last month, Jungsoo splurged at a private jewellery show, and that one night alone cost way more than a semester’s worth of tuition fees. 

Yunho hated it.

Changmin isn’t supposed to be getting the brunt of any of this because it was him who’d been a thoughtless horn dog who fucked Jaejoong in the bathroom and went missing. 

"I wasn’t with Changmin. I was probably out in the gardens having a smoke or something at that time," Yunho tries to defend something he isn’t even supposed to.

"It does not matter." Oh it does, Yunho knew it all did. "Your mother," _Stepmother,_ "and I think you should take a break."

"What?"

"You’ve been carrying heavy work load recently, and maybe letting go, temporarily, of the big merger might do good for you. Go on a vacation, you haven’t visited our family house in Jeju for some time now, your aunt recently visited this beautiful ocean view hotel in Montenegro and—" 

Yunho sees red. He knows what this is. It’s some sort of unsanctioned punishment because his stepmother or grandmother or some distant relative of the Jung clan was not happy about him bringing Changmin to the event.

Because how dare he acknowledge the brother he loved and grew up with.

"Dad, I’ve been working on this merger for months!" He raises his voice, and Jungsoo looks at him with faux shock, as if she was scandalised that the well mannered Jung son lost his temper. But she loves it. Yunho knows she loves it when he’s not being the perfect mould of a son. She gets off on it.

"Yunho." His father’s voice is firm, reminiscent of all those times he was called to his study when he was younger. He’s tired of it. Did his father really need to talk him down like he was an 8 year old who didn’t have a mind of his own? 

He bites back his tongue because he doesn’t want to give them any more reason to be unfavourable to him, but he is seething. 

" I acknowledge your due effort. Working on something for months can make you rather fixated at some details, perhaps someone can take a look at it. In addition, your performance recently hasn’t been particularly wondrous. Seeing what happened at the gallery, you seem to be a little…out of it. I highly suggest you take a leave."

"But—" 

Yunho doesn’t mess up. Sure there are some mistakes, but he’s only fucking human. Everyone else has them. He’s not the sole person working on it, he has a bunch of legal staff too. He knows he’s leading the team, he knows he’s supposed to be on top of it, and he is but can’t his father cut him some slack for making a few mistakes? 

"You can work on the matters Seunhee had briefed you about yesterday, but I also want you to take care of handovers. I’ll have someone from my team look over it and rest assured when you come back, fully rested, mind clear, you can handle it again. It’s for the best."

" It’s for the best my ass," he mutters silently under his breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii!  
> So I missed a week of updating, sorry about that.  
> How is everyone doing? 
> 
> Anywaaaaay, YunJae are being stupid aren't they? And Changmin is getting caught in the crossfire.
> 
> Oh, and ya'll should also give love to @kimjaejiggae for beta-ing this, while I'm struggling to write chapter 10. ;;  
> Thank you so much.


	7. Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What’s changed? Something is different about Jaejoong. A new haircut? Is he wearing contacts? Did he gain weight? Lose weight?

He’s late.

He’s late!

He’s fucking late!

The door of the bus opens and Changmin couldn’t have dashed out any faster. One hand is holding the camera strapped around his neck, the other is on his bag, keeping everything from flying around as he bolts through the street. He hastily treads his way with a string of broken excuse me’s, I’m sorry’s, and coming through’s.

He finally reaches the small stadium, his long legs making it up to the stairs that led to the entrance of the field. He takes two steps at a time, his breathing irregular because of the hurried pace he’s going in.

It’s a little league baseball match. The score board says 4-2, the third inning is done, marking the half time. He makes it to the side of the field, making his way through the bleachers. He sees the dirtied, sun kissed kids, rugged from all the playing, drinking and wiping off their sweat in the middle of the half time break.

He halts his movement and puts his head between his legs, using his hand on his knees to support his upper body as he tries to catch a breath.

"Goddamnit!"

Changmin’s been covering the games of the little league baseball team since the start of the season. One of the few assignments in his photography job in a small events coverage company. 

He is still breathing heavily when he raises his head, and he sees a plump short man heading towards him.

"Changmin!"

Fuck. There’s his boss. 

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago!"

Changmin wipes the sweat off his forehead. He had no excuse, but he really didn’t mean to sleep in. "I’m sorry."

"Changmin. I already got a replacement for you."

"Yea. I know, I know, you can tell him that I can take over from here. I’m sorry for all the trouble," he says as he grabs as grabs his camera from his bag, adjusting the settings to suit the light.

His boss heaves an inhale and stares at him. "Changmin."

"Look. I’m really sorry—"

He feels an arm on his shoulder. "Changmin. This is the sixth time you’ve been late to an assignment."

He stops what he’s doing and only then does he notice the serious look on his boss’s eyes. "I’ve found a replacement. Not just for this game."

"What do you mean?"

"Changmin. This isn’t easy for me to say but being late six times without a valid excuse? I have to answer to someone too, and they’re not happy with your disrespecting the clients’ time like this."

Okay. So maybe he slept in today, but he’s had valid excuses before. Right?

He’d been late a few times trying to get some of his shots considered for some art magazines. That one time the reception lady at The Korea Times made him wait only to get his photo submissions rejected. 

The other times were emergencies. Once it was because Junsu needed help with the plumbing at the record store. There was another when the train broke down and he got stranded in the subway.

Can’t the world cut him some slack?

"I’m…fired?"

"I’m sorry, kid."

He opens his mouth to protest but just then a bunch of kids notice him. "Changmin hyung!"

He turns to the kids whom he has somewhat become close with to over the gaming season. They would play a game of catch after matches, he’d buy them ice cream to cheer them up if they lost.

"Where were you? Byungjoon said his juju got messed up because you weren’t here!" Changmin only laughs and ruffles his hair. Deep inside he want to throw things and cry in the showe

He was going to fucking miss those kids.

His boss was kind enough to let him stay and watch for the rest of the game. He doesn’t touch his camera and just cheers for the team. He tries to talk it out with his boss, but it leads to nothing. He kind of understands though. He knows he’s been half-assing the job, but how could he not?

The children were great, and there were other events he’s covered that were interesting, but he never imagined this for himself. He wanted to be one of those photographers who had exhibits, who had their photos on the pages of magazines. 

He had always wanted to be a concert photographer, maybe even to get to shoot some album covers of bands, maybe a feature in Rolling Stones magazine. Being the Korean Mick Rock would’ve been cool. That was the dream, combining his two passions together. That’s what he wanted.

But there are apartment rents to be paid, gas, electricity, and food. 

When the game is finally over, he says goodbye to his little friends, he wonders if they realise it was an actual goodbye this time.

He make his way out the small stadium and decides to walk around. He’s got nothing to do.

He messed up because he spent the whole night practicing the changes Jaejoong made on his song. He knows he’s been out of sorts recently, but he was finding something to cheer him up again.

Tough luck though, it got him fired.

Back to the drawing board again. Step one: Finding a job. 

His phone vibrates just as he crosses a junction on the street. It’s Yunho.

He picks it up, "Hey!"

"Chwang, you free? I know it’s early but up for a drink? I need a fucking breather."

Well fuck yea, sign him up for that.

 

* * *

 

Two completely different lives, completely different jobs and positions, from two sides of the city, and yet the two of them are together drinking at a warm afternoon, both basically fucked over by work. 

They’re at some random western style family restaurant, and when they ordered two large mugs of beer with no food between them, the waitress dressed in a frilly checkered uniform gives them a weird look. 

Yunho is still in his suit, and Changmin is wearing a tattered cargo jacket over a black tee, a sling bag still on his shoulder even as they sat. They were an odd pair to be seen.

"Can I get fries?" Changmin asks, but he’s already raising a hand to call a server.

Yunho nods, his face resting on his hand. Changmin looks at him. He knows his brother, he’s not used to fucking up, not when he’s tried so hard, and he knows Yunho has practically been killing himself over work.

They sit in silence until the waitress comes, he orders large chilli fries and two more beers.

"So you fucked up, worst comes to worst you’d be demoted right? Jung wouldn’t fire his own son. Even if you burned down the whole building to build over a headquarters for Nazis, your dad would cover everything up for you and maybe even promote you or something because he doesn’t want the family reputation ruined."

"I’m getting a forced two weeks of vacation and the contract negotiations I’m handling are getting handed over to my dad’s team. As if mine isn’t capable."

Changmin’s chilli fries arrive and so does the two beers, and the younger chugs almost half of the mug before replying, "Are you kidding me? You got two weeks vacation? That’s what you’re upset about?Didn’t you hear me when I said I got fired? You’re getting paid to rest…that’s technically a gift!"

Yunho only looks at Changmin. He can’t find himself to tell him that the main reason he’s so pissed off was that the grounds for everything that’s happened to him was unreasonable, that it was because of his brother and the unnecessary bias against him. 

"At least we can visit mom and stay longer than we usually do," Changmin injects.

"Oh. Fuck. Yea. We should just definitely spend some time in Naju. You totally need to take a break before finding a new job too.

"That, I agree with."

"Done then. Road trip to Naju and let’s stay there for more than a week. Just in time for her birthday, and we can help her cleaning out the house too. She’s been passive aggressively hinting on wanting that."

"See. This can be a good thing! Your career will be fine and you’ll feel better when we get back. Papa Jung will let you get your workload back."

"It’s not that, he always talks to me like I’m some child you know? I’m not. I can never please him."

Changmin who has been picking at his food, stops and looks at him thoughtfully. "Hey. I know you hate it when I talk shit about your dad, but that man wouldn’t be impressed even if Jesus himself turned water into wine right in front of him. There is barely anything that pleases him anyway. Whatever it is that’s gone wrong, I’m sure you’re capable of fixing it. It’s him who has poor judgement if he doesn’t see the value in what you do."

Yunho is slightly taken a back. That, coming from Changmin means a lot to him, but he’s not going to be all cheesy over it. "Yea, he’s a fucking asshole."

Changmin thinks his brother is a little drunk, they both already have a number of beers in their tab. He wouldn’t call his dad an asshole if he was still completely sober. 

Yunho can hold his liquor, but can’t go head to head with Changmin. He’s gotten smashed and had enough shares of passing out in public parking lots to not have a high tolerance.

"But thank you, Changmin."

"Savour it. You’re only entitled one compliment from me each year," Changmin grins.

Yunho throws a crumpled paper napkinat him, "Brat," he says, but Changmin’s words make him feel a little better.

"And hey, least you have a hot boyfriend to stay in bed with all the days you’re not working."

Boyfriend? Ah. Yes. He meant Jaejoong. 

Changmin catches the change of expression in Yunho’s face, "Missed him?"

Miss…Jaejoong?

The question sounds bizarre to him. He’s never thought of it. Missing Jaejoong.

Changmin shrugs. He grabs a french fry and eats it, continuing to talk without looking at his him. 

"I was with him last night." He forgets he’s with his big brother and smiles, remembering their little music session.

"Oh?"

"Yea. He was helping me finish a song." Changmin talks casually, still smiling.

"Oy! Stop smiling like that, you just said he was my boyfriend, remember?" There’s no lie in that statement.

Changmin rolls his eyes takes the lump of table napkin from earlier, dips it in the ketchup and lunges it at him. It almost hits Yunho’s white shirt, but instead ends on the leather couch. 

Yunho can pay for that if they end up ruining it. 

"You little shit!" He then takes Changmin’s plate of fries and shoves the remaining pieces of french fries in his mouth so his brother can’t have any more.

"Fucker!" He was about to look for another table placement to throw it at Yunho, but he realises how stupid Yunho looked with a mouth full of fries, cheeks swollen like a hamster.

"What?" Yunho says, but he almost chokes on the food in his mouth, Changmin laughs, shoulders hitching up and down. 

He looks incredibly stupid, specially with a jacket and a shirt.

Yunho catches up at the hilarity of everything and ends up spitting the food out, causing Changmin to laugh even harder. 

Both of them slapping hard on the wooden table, silent snickers between them, a few hicks between their breaths,Yunho with his crest shaped eyes, and Changmin with his uneven ones.

After a while they calm down, both trying to breathe properly. Changmin is the first to settle down. "But seriously hyung, Jaejoong is awesome. He made my song so much better than what I had originally made it out to be."

Yunho sits up straight, catching his breath too. "I should give him roses or something for helping you out."

His little brother looks at him like he has two heads.

"What?"

Nothing.

"Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who have a misogynistic perspective against men receiving flowers. That’s archaic."

"No. Ew. Of course men should receive flowers as much as any other woman. It’s not feminine function to receive them."

"Then what is it?"

"You really don’t know?"

"Do I look like I know?"

"Jaejoong has pollen allergy."

"What?"

"That’s why he loves lilies. No pollen. It’s the only flower that doesn’t make him feel like he’s going to die." He says a matter of factly, trying to ring a bell to Yunho. His brother didn’t even know Jaejoong liked lilies. "It’s why he has a butterfly tattoo on his chest, because he likes reminding himself that those small and fragile creatures can withstand he can’t. He hasn’t given you that speech? That we all have strength and weaknesses, no matter how big or small we are? He liked explaining that to me." 

Nothing changes from his brother’s expression "And that’s why kids called him snotty Jaejoong right? It was worse when he was younger. Come spring it gets really bad for him and his nose gets runny 24/7."

Oh.

Yunho pauses. He knows that tattoo. He’s ran his tongue over it countless times, nipped at it, bit it, scratched it with his blunt nails, but he never knew what it meant to Jaejoong.

He didn’t even know Jaejoong had allergies. His brother did, and he’s not the one who’s been keeping his bed warm for months now. Changmin’s only met him for what, two weeks?

The younger of the two realises that all this is new information to Yunho. He looks a little lost.

Changmin didn’t mean to make him feel like a shitty boyfriend.

"I—I mean, it’s okay hyung. Sometimes partners miss these kinds of things."

Yunho is still silent and Changmin speaks up again, "Anyway, you’re going to his gig tonight, right?"

"Huh? Oh. Uhm. He doesn’t know I’m back yet. You know, unplanned early flight and everything."

Changmin watches Yunho trip over his words.

"You should go. Let’s go together. It would be neat surprise. He’ll love it!"

 

* * *

 

 

Even with the dimmed yellow lights, Yunho and Changmin stand out as they make their way to an empty table, their heights towering over everyone in the room. 

It’s not necessarily a slow night at the bar, but because it’s a weekday, there are a few unoccupied seats. Hipsters with piercings, tattoos, and colourful hair mostly make up the crowd. Even when he’s ditched the jacket, Yunho still looks he made a wrong turn and landed there by mistake. At least he had Changmin who ruffled his hair for him. "That’s better, you looked like a health inspector. Also, unbutton a few will you?"

So he does.

There is a petite girl with a red beret and red lip stick to match singing a bossanova version of some k-pop song from two years ago. Yunho doesn’t give her a second glance as he pulls the ash tray towards him, lighting a Marlboro, the smoke he puffs out mixes with the already permeating smell of weed and tobacco. 

Heechul arrives and drops them two whiskeys, "He’ll be on at 10," the siblings synchronously look at their watches and click their tongue right after. It looked like a practiced move. 

The bartender switches glances between them. "You two are fucking weird," Heechul says before leaving them be. 

By the time it’s almost ten, they have several empty glasses and an ashtray filled with cigarettes and a few joints between them. 

Yunho has left to answer a short call from Sunny.

Changmin thought there were two or three impressive acts, and there was one band that totally had a 70’s vibe. He would love to hear more of them. 

His older brother comes back just in time for the host to announce Jaejoong’s entrance. The silver haired man comes out and heads to the stool in the middle of the small stage. There were others following him, one heading to the keyboard, one to the drums in the back and the other two standing on each side behind him with guitars on their hands.

He introduces himself and the band, neither Changmin nor Yunho catch the other guys’ names, except for the messy haired drummer named Pasta.

Jaejoong announces they’ll only be singing a medley of three songs, and there’s a cumulative grunt of disappointment in the crowd to which he jokes, "Oh cut me some slack. I just deep throated someone back stage so my voice is not at its best."

The whole place laughs, even Changmin, but Yunho didn’t really like that one.

Jaejoong starts with a cover of a song called ‘Wherever You Are’, Changmin likes it but he wonders why he doesn’t go with any of the songs he’s written himself. 

He’s never seen him on stage before, and Changmin sounds like a broken record, thinking of how beautiful Jaejoong, he knows that, it’s only popped in his head every single time he sees the man, but on stage he was different. On stage he can make you forget anyone else existed.

Changmin tries not to look like a 6th grade boy with a crush.

Jaejoong starts to sing and glances over at Yunho who is just staring.

Yunho looks at Jaejoong like it’s the first time he’s seeing him. There’s something about him that night he can’t put a finger on. 

It’s been a week.

A week. 

What’s changed? Something is different about Jaejoong. A new haircut? Is he wearing contacts? Did he gain weight? Lose weight?

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong doesn’t miss it. When he steps on stage, he sees Changmin. That was expected, but he also spots his brother. Yunho was there when he was supposed to be far far away. 

He hopes nobody noticed how he almost tripped on amp wiring on the way up. 

As of yet, he’s done a good job avoiding Yunho in his vision.

Two songs down. About half of one more left.

He spots Yunho at the corner of his eye. He continues singing, closing his eyes instead. He knows Yunho’s gaze is on him.

 

_Give me back the bunches of letters I've given to you_

_Stop reading it together with other people_

_When you carry the neglected past in your heart_

_You run the night streets you've gotten used to, to go back home_

 

He tries to think about the lyrics and the beat of the base as he matches his pace with the band’s melody.

He looks at the table in front of him. 

At the corner of the wall. 

At Heechul at the bar. 

He looks at Changmin.

Yes. Changmin, Changmin makes him feel comfortable when he sings.

His gaze goes around the room, scanning people, pretending to make eye contact when he’s  really just looking at their foreheads, but mostly he’s finding his ground with Changmin when he’s feeling a little vulnerable.

The song is almost ending, he thinks can make it without messing up and getting distracted by Yunho.

 

_I'm an idiot, an idiot, and yet being such an idiot_

_I can't believe I was planning on receiving that love anyway_

 

He makes it.

But then, when his voice fades, only the instruments left playing, he makes the mistake of looking at the man he’s been avoiding.

When their eyes meet Yunho just casually smiles at him. That familiar smile. Normal smile as if telling him, _Hey, I’m back._

Just normal old Yunho coming home from Shanghai. Why did he think it would be anything but that? He was back, they were going to be back to their regular program. 

He decides he was the one being weird.

The lights dim and he leaves the stage.

Yunho and Changmin sit in and watch a few more people before leaving their table and heading to the bar counter where Heechul is at.

Changmin asks for another beer.

"Hey, you can go in the backroom, that’s where everyone is, pretty sure Jaejoong is in there too. Just go behind the curtains and you’ll see a green door on the right. If they don’t let you in, tell them I sent you." 

"Nice!" Changmin grabs the cold bottle that’s handed to him and he doesn’t even bother acknowledging Yunho when he leaves.

"You too big boy, you’re welcome to go to the backroom," Yunho only shakes his head and takes a seat, ordering another glass of whiskey for himself. Heechul sneers and, keeps his eyes on him as much as he could before he turning to whip up his drink.

"How’ve you been?" Yunho asks as the bartender lays down a coaster and his drink.

"Still out of your league," he winks at him before leaving to attend someone else, he lets out a small laugh. He can totally understand why he and Jaejoong are such close friends.

Yunho is playing with the droplets of water condensing on his glass when he hears a voice behind him.

"I know he’s performing tonight, come on Heech!"

"Don’t call me _Heech_ , and yea he did perform, you missed him."

"Is he still here?"

"Maybe. I don’t know. Do I look like his nanny to you?"

"Come on man, just give me Jaejoong’s number."

Jaejoong? Yunho’s hearing is suddenly sharper, heat building up the side of his face as he turns to the conversation.

He sees a rather young man. When he thinks about it, maybe a little bit younger than Changmin. He has brown wavy short hair and is wearing a pair of trendy thick framed glasses. He was more cute than he is handsome. Reminds Yunho of one of those guys from The Choi’s entertainment company.

"I just need to talk to him. I had such an amazing time with him two nights ago and I haven’t seen him since then."

"Changwook, baby, then you should’ve asked him for his number yourself."

Changwook looked tired, "I know! I know, but you know how Jaejoong is. You look into his deep brown eyes and—" he pauses and sighs dreamily, "—and you forget who you even are and the next thing you know he’s gone. It’s like being in a trance. Catching a falling star!"

Wow. He’s fucking annoying. Who does this kid think he is? Joseph Gordon fucking Levitt in a chick flick?

Heechul scratches the side of his head, getting tired of Changwook, he’s been asking for Jaejoong since yesterday. "Look, maybe if you wait up you can catch him."

Changwook leaves the counter with a grunt, but he’ll take his chances.

When he’s out of the way, Heechul turns to immediately find Yunho staring at him with unamused dark eyes, and he sighs at him too. "What?"

"Who the hell was that?" Heechul hears Yunho’s annoyed voice, and he doesn’t like it at all.

"Changwook," he says flatly, but Yunho continues looking at him expectedly. "Again, what?"

"And Changwook is?"

Heechul rolls his eyes. "Some guy Jaejoong slept with, what’s it to you?"

Yunho clenches his jaw. Seriously that kid? Jaejoong and that kid? He threw the ball pretty low there.

"Oh Jung. Give me a break, it’s not like you didn’t enjoy banging foreign ass while you were away."

He didn’t, because while Jeajoong was off fucking pretty boy Changwook, he’d been trying to call him, and masturbating in the shower over his memories when he didn’t answer.

He downs the remaining alcohol in his glass.

 

* * *

 

It’s been long day for Yunho. He’s just across the road from the bar, sitting on a street ledge, smoking by himself. Changmin messaged him not to wait up since he was invited to some other music joint by Jaejoong’s band members. 

He’d actually just seen his younger brother exit the place with them a few minutes back. Changmin didn’t notice him at all. They were laughing, and a guy had a hand around his shoulder, Changmin was talking about something animatedly, which is rare when he’s out with people he’s only met, but he’s always had an excitement for music

…that or it could be the pot.

Yunho’s eyes followed them until they disappeared at the turn on the next block. Changmin can handle himself and he’s glad one of them is enjoying the night.

He spends time messaging Sunny, following up on the conversation they had earlier. Did the transfer go smoothly? Why hasn’t anyone called him? Was everything clear? No questions? No further errors?

He loves his assistant for patiently getting back to him, answering properly in full detail. She’s the best.

He sends another message before lifting his head, in time to spot Jaejoong going through the door. He frowns when he sees the guy from earlier following him out. 

The two stop just right in front.

Yunho drops his cigarette, using his shoe to kill the light before heading towards them.

"How about Friday then?" He hears Changwook as he’s closing in. The kid really doesn’t know how to pull on the breaks, does he?

He would just love to shut him up, and so he does. 

When he’s near enough, he wraps an arm around Jaejoong’s waist. Jaejoong didn’t even see him coming so he stiffens at the contact at first, but Yunho dips his head to go for his mouth, "Just go with it," he quickly whispers before closing the distance between them. 

Jaejoong groans into his mouth, a little bit surprised at how strong the flavour of tobacco is on his breath, but he melts into it soon enough.

Jaejoong hasn’t tasted Yunho since the night at the exhibit. He’s only heard his voice through the phone since then. His mind floats to all the touches he’s imagined with Yunho’s husky voice against his ear, then it just starts coming back to him, how Yunho actually feels, the warmth, the pressure. Suddenly his body is telling him he wants more.

Typical slutty Kim Jaejoong, he calls himself out on the way his body is responding.

Jaejoong starts kissing back, and Yunho smirks against him. 

Yunho opens an eyelid to peak at Changwook who looks absolutely stunned.

It’s loud and clear now, Changwook knows his place.

When they part, Jaejoong looks glassy eyed, mouth still half open, and Yunho wipes the spit on the corner of his mouth with his thumb, bringing it to his own to taste. Jaejoong watches and he just wants to go kiss him again, but before he does Yunho turns his head, "So who’s this guy?"

Jaejoong blinks. Once. Twice.

What?

He had forgotten where they were. He turns his head to see Changwook there, face red, eyes wide open. His brain catches up to present and he realises what Yunho is trying to do.

Changwook opens and closes his mouth several times, not a word uttered out of it.

"Changwook…" Jaejoong begins, but he only becomes redder.

"I—I…I’m sorry I have to go," the younger man marches past them with his head down, and both Yunho and Jaejoong watch him storm away in panic.

"You asshole!" Jaejoong hits his fist on Yunho’s chest when Changwook is far enough.

"What? You totally wanted him out of your way," Yunho says as he’s leading them to an alleyway, away from the main street, arms still around Jaejoong.

"Yea but you scared him!" Jaejoong hollers, annoyed, looking back at Yunho, he’s pissed but man is Yunho handsome against the dim light.

"Poor baby, he’s probably not going to be able to pick up anyone for months after what you did! He looked traumatised!"

"You can always sleep with him again if you’re so concerned," Yunho rolls his eyes and talks in a mocking tone. He has Jaejoong between his body and the wall.

"Oh shut up!"

"How did you even end up with that guy anyway?" He says before his mouth starts a trail from below Jaejoong’s ear to his jaw.

Jaejoong threads his fingers onto Yunho’s hair as he continues making a path down his neck, he hums. "Mmm. He was cute."

Yunho immediately pulls away. "You don’t even like cute guys," he says, pushing Jaejoong hard against the surface, using his knee to roughly part his thighs.

"Depends. Could be flavour of the week," Jaejoong muses.

Yunho looks at him, ready to be pissed, but he pauses when he sees his face up close. Suddenly aware that it’s his first time to take him in like this after being away.

He watched him sing earlier but he was far, just a part of the audience like everyone else. But now he gets this view, so close. The light from the street lamp is on Jaejoong’s face, against his dark brown eyes. Yunho memorises it.

Yunho stares at him in the dark, like he’s studying him. Jaejoong’s silver hair falls on his forehead, just by the edge of his eyebrows, a few of the longer strands grazing eyelashes that were never that long. He’s the same. Completely the same.

There was no hair cut, no contacts, he didn’t lose weight nor gain it or anything.

Yunho realises that nothing changed at all with Jaejoong. What changed was the way he looked at him.

He drifts back to a week ago, Jaejoong’s silence and how he didn’t want to do anything else but fix it. How frustrated he was that he couldn’t, that he had to leave right after, not really knowing what was on his mind.

The itch in Shanghai to just call him, it wasn’t just for the phone sex, he wanted to hear his voice, to figure out if things were okay even just by the sound of him speaking.

He’s okay now right? Jaejoong is in his arms, and they’re half fighting, and he’s smiling at him. They’re okay now.

They’re okay.

He goes for Jaejoong’s mouth again. This time he’s got no motive. He’s not trying to distract Jaejoong, no Changwook watching. Just them, him feeling Jaejoong against his body.

Their lips lock. Finally. It’s the only thing that feels right since he arrived in Seoul. 

When they break for breath, Yunho takes a while before he speaks, feeling Jaejoong’s chest heave against his, "Come home with me?"

Jaejoong nods, before pulling him in again.

 

* * *

 

No one can live on just sex. Yunho and Jaejoong know because they’ve tried. 

Neither of them had eaten a proper meal the whole day, and they’ve both tried ignoring it for the past two hours.

The first round was great hormones taking over, they were both on a high, their bodies felt nothing else but each other.

The second round was great too, except in the middle of Yunho pounding into his ass, face plastered on a pillow, Jaejoong starts thinking about how good a sandwich would be, he’s only distracted when Yunho thrusts particularly hard, and instead his mind goes blank.

Neither of them could even get up for a third round, stomachs craving from some sustenance. Cum doesn’t work.

That is why Jaejoong is holding a bowl of veggie fried rice with only a linen blanket wrapped around his waist. He settles on the countertop, and Yunho who is only wearing a pair of boxers moves his stool to settle in between his legs.

He feeds him a spoonful, and he watches Yunho chew on it. Everything is just back to normal now, and Jaejoong finds Yunho’s ability to suspend his reality a little bit scary.

"I didn’t realise how hungry I was," Yunho says, a hand making its way up Jaejoong’s thigh when he sees the window of opportunity from the parting sides of the blanket.

"Same," this time Jaejoong brings a spoonful to himself, only half a mind on the warm hands reaching higher and higher up his thigh.

They chat in between bites, Yunho telling him about Shanghai, and Jaejoong sharing how talented he thinks his brother is.

"Changmin told me about work," Jaejoong says, feeding Yunho the last of the fried rice. He’d already placed the bowl on the countertop before Yunho could answer.

"Yea. It fucking sucks" Yunho looks up at Jaejoong, standing up and finding comfort on the crook of his neck.

Jaejoong plays with the hair on his back like he always does, "You’ll be fine."

Yunho backs away and stares at him again.

He’s been doing that since he got back, like he’s trying to read something on the surface of his skin.

Jaejoong feels a little bit more self conscious this time, because it’s the first time since they’ve met that they were in a well lit area. It’s also the first time Yunho notices fading purple marks along his chest and eyes them. He runs his thumbs on them.

"Changwook’s?" He asks, and Jaejoong almost feels guilty for shaking his head. Yunho has never been vocal about those things until then, he had a habit of running a finger on hickeys, but he never really spoke when he did so, he never questioned it.

Jaejoong always thought it was just a small bout of jealousy, that only comes natural for a guy with a lot of pride like Yunho. It didn’t mean anything, he never seemed upset over it.

"Someone else," he says, pulling Yunho closer. He didn’t want to think about that, about _them_. 

"I see." 

It’s Jaejoong’s turn to do the distracting. He wraps his legs around him, kissing him as his hands snake around the back of his neck. "Back to the bedroom?" he asks, Yunho only nods before carrying him out.

The linen on Jaejoong’s waist has already fallen off somewhere before they reach the bed, because Yunho decided that he couldn’t wait until they get to the bedroom before assaulting his mouth, and it can never just be a kiss with him, hands needed to roam.

When Jaejoong gets thrown on the mattress, he expected Yunho lunging on top of him, hard fucking ahead of them, but instead Yunho climbs over him, arms on either side of his head, and stares at him again.

That look again, like he’s studying him. "Just try to keep calm," Yunho says before descending down. 

Gentle kisses here and there, licks, and nibbles. His hand finds his cock and doesn’t stop touching it, he does it languidly. 

Jaejoong wants to jump out of his skin from the slow burn.

Yunho is rarely this attentive. He is by no means selfish in bed, Jaejoong wouldn’t have kept coming back to him if he was, but Yunho was almost always impatient, like he has a ticking time bomb in him that has to be sated by all the touching and kissing and fucking, or he’ll explode. 

He pleasured Jaejoong with endless amounts through teasing and denial, that’s how he gave attention. That’s how he was in bed. Not like this.

He liked tasting and feeling skin, but this time he’s moving slower, more of exploring than trying to feel. 

Yunho bites a patch of skin here and there to see what reaction Jaejoong gives. He plays with the ring of skin on his ass and he finally inserts a lubed finger inside him, just one, his middle finger gently pushing it in and out, curling, twisting when he wants to. Just one painstaking finger and it’s definitely not enough to fill Jaejoong up, but it keeps him on the edge. He tries stirring his hips for more contact, but Yunho holds him down.

Whenever Jaejoong shivers, or makes a noise, he stops, and goes on to watch his reaction. 

Even that feels so absolutely delicious that Jaejoong doesn’t even ask him for more. He would normally be asking, begging for Yunho to do more, touch more, grip tighter, push harder, but he doesn’t. He let’s Yunho do as he pleases.

Jaejoong isn’t about to complain about the way Yunho is exploring him.

Jaejoong himself discovers new places that send a chill up his spine. He realises he prefers Yunho’s nails running across the back of his arms, but he prefers the rough feel of his calloused finger pads against his nipples. 

He likes it when Yunho grazes his teeth against his shaft. He finds out he can’t hold himself from squirming when Yunho bites the juncture of his thighs. He’s had sex, a lot of it, but he’s feeling a bunch of new sensations and it might just be driving him crazy.

Yunho kisses his way up to him again, landing his lips on both sides of his pelvic bones, a tongue dipping on the trailer below his belly button, a nip in between his chest, both of his nipples, his finger never leaving inside of Jaejoong.

By the time their eyes meet again, Jaejoong is flustered, a slow heat is creeping up his face and he feels like he needs a fucking inhaler.

"Wow," he breathes out. Yunho lightly pushes on the a sweet spot inside of him. He moans out, and Yunho pulls his finger away.

Yunho kisses him languidly again, before moving back to his chest, this time a hand on his left nipple while his mouth traces the butterfly tattoo on the right side of his chest.

Yunho slips his cock in, slowly again. He thrusts, mouth still attending to his tattoo.

Jaejoong’s voice hitches, Yunho matches him with a deep moan.

Jaejoong tries counting his breath. He can’t even moan out loud, because he’s just trying to breathe properly.

Is it possible to come from being stimulated so slowly and gently?

He doesn’t notice how closely Yunho has been staring, until he opens his eyes, realising he’s not breathing his own air anymore. 

Yunho kisses his cheeks, the corner of his mouth, all while still moving inside him.

Then he halts.

"Your tattoo."

"What?"

"Changmin told me all about it, your pollen allergy, the way you like being reminded that they, no matter how small and fragile butterflies are they can withstand something you cant,"

Jaejoong only nods, not really understanding where he’s going with the conversation. He just wants to be fucked. He digs his heels against Yunho’s ass, but the other doesn’t relent.

"You—…you can tell me all those things too." That’s when Jaejoong pauses.

Jaejoong looks at Yunho in his eyes, he doesn’t recognise his expression, but it makes something in the pit of his stomach go crazy. "Okay," he breathes out and Yunho starts moving again, watching how his face changes in expression when he does. 

For the first time ever, Jaejoong feels a little bit shy about the way he looked during sex. He’s being watched so intently, but it turns him on, the way Yunho looks at him like he’s spellbound. He bites his lower lip, feeling blood rush to his cheeks.

"I missed you," Yunho dips in for another unhurried kiss.

Jaejoong freezes when the words hit his ears. I missed you. It was not an "I missed your cock," or "I missed being inside you," or any of that.

_I missed you._

His chest wants to explode.

His heart is racing.

His brain doesn’t want to think about it.

He is a little bit lost with everything he feels at the moment and he just cards Yunho’s hair as they kiss. He focuses on the way Yunho is moving against him with his tongue, with his hands, with his cock.

 

* * *

 

Yunho is exhausted. He can’t move any of his limbs even if he wanted to. Four rounds of sex, one round being excruciatingly long, and yet he keeps falling out of sleep, occasionally glancing to his side, as if to check if Jaejoong was still there.

He doesn’t really know what has gotten into him. 

He closes his eyes trying to fall asleep, listening to Jaejoong’s inhales and exhales. He shifts to turn to him, his eyes fly open again, finger tracing the other tattoos on his back, Yunho thinks he wants to learn about all those too. He moves closer to kiss them, nuzzling the back of his neck and smelling his hair when he’s done.

Jaejoong wakes from shifting of the mattress, and he feels a warm weight on top of him. It’s enough to bring his senses back.

_Fuck._

He’s sore.

It can’t be later than four in the morning.

"Yunho," he let’s out an exasperated groan, not really fully awake yet. "You better not be up for sex again because I can’t even feel my own ass anymore."

Yunho can be insatiable and Jaejoong knows that, heck sometimes he’s the one who wakes Yunho up for a quick romp at daybreak, but waking up to be fucked again in the middle of the night after hours of having sex might be too much, even for him.

He feels Yunho shift over him and wet lips are on his jaw. A kiss. A lick. A nip.

"Yunho," He feels his cock getting hard, but he thinks it’s physically impossible to move. "I already gave you five orgasms, please." he tries to reprimand again. "I promise, I’ll wake you up with mind-blowing head in the morning but I’m just so tired right now," he complains in the dark.

The other stops and Jaejoong laughs sleepily. "You really like morning head don’t you?" He didn’t expect to convince him that fast.

He lazily opens his eyes to see Yunho’s handsome face looking down on him, and when he sees those intense eyes looking back at him, he thinks, maybe sex isn’t that bad.

"Jaejoong."

"Hmm?" he shifts under him, wrapping his legs around his waist.

"I have to go home to Naju, it’s mom’s birthday"

"Mhhmm" 

"I want you to come with me."

Jaejoong feels like he got slapped across the face with ice.

He’s joking. Yunho has got to be joking. 

Jaejoong wants to laugh his head off at the ridiculousness of it all, except, he doesn’t really think it’s funny. "What?"

"I want you to come with me to Naju. To visit my mom." The seriousness in Yunho’s voice doesn’t lie. He’s trying to read Jaejoong for an answer.

Jaejoong pushes Yunho off, grabs the nearest pillow and slams it on his chest. "Save that for your real boyfriend," he laughs it off, Yunho doesn’t.

"I’m serious Jaejoong."

He turns his body away from him, but Yunho is persistent, spooning him, "Jaejoong," he whispers in his ears with his one hand caressing his side, hands going lower and gently squeezing his ass as he goes. He knows the currently quiet man likes that. 

Jaejoong still doesn’t reply, trying to ignore him and go back to sleep. Yunho throwing an _I miss you_ and now inviting him to Naju? What’s he playing at?

"Except for Changmin, you’re the only one I know who’s from there," Yunho explains, voice weaker than how he’d spoken earlier, "I don’t know. You help me relax."

When Jaejoong doesn’t reply again, Yunho gives up and lies on his back. "I think I need you there," when Yunho says it it’s more of a confession to himself rather than an appeal to get Jaejoong to go.

He stares at the ceiling. He really doesn’t know what to do if Jaejoong doesn’t go. He didn’t want it to be like Shanghai all over again.

Just then he feels a heavy hand slap him in the chest. "Ugh. You annoying little shit. When do we leave?"

Yunho smiles and pulls Jaejoong closer for a kiss. Yunho can breathe properly again.

The next thing he knows, Jaejoong is tucking himself under his chin, taking a deep sigh.

"Is it really that bad for you?" Yunho plays with the hair on his nape before nodding. "Okay. God. I spoil you, Jung Yunho."

He would give the world to Jaejoong just then and there if he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god. We're finally in chapter 7! This is actually my and @kimjaejiggae's favorite chapter so far. What do you think? Is it by any chance yours too? Hahaha. I've been told that it is very feels inducing. And @kimjaejiggae keeps telling me YunJae look so in love here. Anyone with same or opposing thoughts? And what do you think is going to go down in Naju? YunJaeMin going back to their home town sounds fun! Hahaha.
> 
> Also, I think it's obvious now, but each name of the chapter is a song that's somehow complementary to the chapter. "Something", which is the title of chapter 7 is arguably my favourite Beatles song of all time. I encourage y'all to listen to it! It'll give you feels. I can just imagine the song in the background when Yunho looks at Jae. T_T 
> 
> And, on one more note, I'm posting a YunJae 3 shot AU that's not related to LHC either next week or 2 weeks from now. I'm looking forward to posting it and I hope you guys read it too. It's a very different genre from this one, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing it, ;;


	8. You Really Got Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Jaejoong. He’s basically taking you to meet his family, and you’re just agreeing to all this? It sounds insane."

There is a half filled suitcase that’s wide open, and ziplock bags are strewn all over the floor of Jaejoong’s room.

Heechul is on his bed, watching him go back an forth, picking things up from his drawer, folding his shirts, thinking twice about certain things before either returning them or putting them inside his luggage.

"I should bring my portable audio mixer right?" Jaejoong says talking more to himself than to the companion observing him pack. 

He goes over to grab the mixer, and drops by the bed side table to pick up two bottles of his favourite lube. 

"I still don’t get you man," Heechul sits up to see Jaejoong kneeling in front of the suitcase, arranging his clothes to fit in the mixer. "Don’t you think this is insane?"

Jaejoong doesn’t answer as he manages to fit the rectangular piece of equipment between his pyjamas and underwear.

"Jaejoong. He’s basically taking you to meet his family, and you’re just agreeing to all this? It sounds insane."

He looks up to Heechul with straight eyes. It’s not insane…is it? 

Jaejoong has always been aware of the degree of dependency Yunho has for him. Whether it was Yunho crashing in his apartment at the wee hours of morning claiming that he has nowhere else to go, or if it was a weekday booty call because he was neck deep in stress and needed some way to get his mind off things.

"I’m just being a friend. Friends with benefits, remember? Keyword, friends. This is me, helping a friend out."

Heechul raises an eyebrow.

"Look, if you asked me to go visit Busan with you, I would do the same, you know?"

"Except, we’re not fucking!" Heechul is a bit frustrated, because Jaejoong is acting so evidently clueless, but he knows Jaejoong, and he knows the man was not born yesterday. He’s not acting like himself.

"Why are you obsessing over this?"

"You’re leaving behind home and work, Jaejoong, you’ve been sleeping with him more than anyone else. There’s something there."

"There’s nothing," Jaejoong looks at him, tiredly. He doesn’t like it when people force feelings on him. He knows himself best, and nothing Heechul nor anyone else says can change that.

"I just, I don’t want you to get hurt." Heechul is in resign.

Jaejoong throws a sock lying on the floor, "You’re giving this thing between me and Yunho too much credit. I got this okay? Now let me go over the things I want you to check while I’m gone."

Heechul grunts gets up the bed and Jaejoong picks up a memo. "Fine. If you don’t want to talk about it, fine."

Jaejoong laughs as he passes the door, "Yea. Stop being so dramatic."

There really is nothing much to it. He shifts is thoughts to the incoming bills he’s about to ask Heechul to pay for, the humidifier he has to turn on at least every two days for at least four hours, and the voicemail he has to check in case something important from the old fashioned music producer he’s talking to comes up, the guy is against cellphones.

It doesn’t take much time to hand over the errands and with all the instructions passed over, Heechul takes his exit giving Jaejoong a tight hug before he leaves. "I’m just going to Naju for 2 weeks, I’m not going to the moon," Jaejoong pats his back rather strongly and the other only gives him an eye roll.

"Are you sure you’ll be alright?"

Jaejoong shakes his head and pushes Heechul hurriedly through the door. "A hundred percent."

Soon enough, Jaejoong is alone in his apartment, and he leans at the door pane, observing the mess below his bed.  He doesn’t know how his room got so chaotic. He doesn’t usually spend this much time packing.  He remembers a jacket that Yunho complimented once. He should bring that along too. He moves to his closet trying to find it, "When the fuck was the last time I wore that?"

He digs some more, not caring about the mess he’s making, and then he eventually finds it, a dark grey corduroy jacket with a brown collar. He smiles, feeling accomplished from his search. He drops to the floor to fold it all along with his other things.

His favourite shirts are there. He’s got way too much pants in the suitcase, but he’s not sure if Ms. Shim was the type of mom who would like it if her son brought home someone with ripped jeans bearing most of his thighs. He’s got the nice underwear locked too, spare ones prepared because lord knows how many they’ve ruined before. 

He can’t remember if Yunho liked his flannel pyjamas. He’s complained about it being itchy once in bed. Then again, who is he kidding? They’re naked most of the time.

Jaejoong finds his lips quirking into a small smile.

He’s excited. 

Excited?

_Unnecessarily excited._

He’s looking forward to this trip way more than he should, isn’t he?

He stops folding his clothes and looks at the luggage in front of him. His favourites, the expensive underwear, the things he thinks Yunho would like, hell, the things he thinks his mom would like. 

He’s not a boyfriend. He’s not supposed to be out there trying to impress anyone. Not Yunho’s mom, not even Yunho.

He bites his bottom lip. 

Rewind.

He just needs to rewind.

He said it earlier. He is just a friend, helping out another friend.

He stands up and paces. 14 days of Yunho. Just Yunho.

In Naju.

Oh god.

_Naju._

His eyes dart to a small tattered photo of his old home, almost hidden behind the stack of books and the mess of an ashtray, keys, and loose change on the bedside table. He had forgotten it was there. There are things that rush back in his mind, memories and feelings that he’s not sure how to welcome. 

He thinks he should’ve seen the photo earlier because if he’d been reminded than he wouldn’t have said yes. Reality hits him.

Naju. He is going back to Naju, and he’s dumbfounded at how Yunho has distracted him enough to make him forget.

Heechul _is_ right. This isn’t a good idea. He needs to clear his mind. He needs to take a shower, and then maybe he can call Yunho and tell him he can’t go.

 

* * *

 

Yunho stops the BMW jeep just in front of Jaejoong’s apartment, he takes off his sunglasses and looks out the window. No sign of Jaejoong anywhere, "Are you sure your message got sent?"

Changmin groans, "Yes, hyung, I know how to send a message. Also. We’re way too early, he’s probably busy with something else."

Yunho stops the engine and rolls the window down, stretching his arms outside, glancing up, as if staring at Jaejoong’s window would change anything.

Changmin sinks in his seat, he’s watching his brother wait impatiently. He knows Yunho isn’t one for waiting, but he doesn’t understand the anxiety.

Well.

Maybe he does. 

His big brother is basically introducing his boyfriend to their mother. That could churn anyone’s panties in a knot. Sure, his brother is a love sick puppy when it comes to Jaejoong, that much he could tell, but he didn’t realise he was _that_ serious.

After all these years of Yunho spending more time with the Jungs, he’s pretty sure they’ve exhausted the bi out of Yunho’s bisexuality. 

For some reason, he’s always pictured Yunho’s future to involve a white picket fenced house, a Stepford housewife who wears make up even in her sleep, and two darling baby Jungs being groomed to be the next lacrosse super athletes—and with the rate Yunho was going with licking corporate ass, he was sure that was the route he was be taking. Which is why it was more than surprising to him when he found out he was taking Jaejoong to meet their mother, but he figures Yunho _is_ a man of breaking expectations. He’s seen enough of that side of him growing up. 

He’s seen Yunho fight with his father, to the point where he’d ran away from Seoul all alone at age eight. He came back to Naju, and Mr. Jung came all the way to get him back for the summer vacations he’s always had in the city. Yunho didn’t go without a fight, kicking and screaming. Even when he was forced back to the seat of his father’s Porsche. Changmin, could see the fire of defiance in his eyes as his father sat beside him. 

He’d almost forgotten that Yunho. That was the big brother he looked up to as a kid, and he wonders if Jaejoong is the one person who had managed to call that side of him back.

If so, he’s happy for his brother. Really…But why did his boyfriend have to be be the most perfect, funny, beautiful, musically talented man in the world?

"You’re really serious about him huh? Bringing him home to mom and all?" Changmin asks, not sparing a glance at Yunho, as he stares directly to the road ahead.

"Maybe," Yunho answers absentmindedly before he moves out of the car to go fetch Jaejoong. 

When he hears the door slam close, Changmin sinks further into the leather seat.

 

* * *

 

Yunho jogs his way to Jaejoong’s unit, he knocks at the door but no one comes to answer, He hears muffled sounds on the other side and grabs doorknob. To his surprise, it was unlocked. 

"Jae?" he says as he walks through the small apartment, treading his way to his room. He immediately sees Jaejoong, with nothing but sweat pants on, skin and hair still damp, obviously from taking a shower. 

"Found it!" Yunho hears him say as he ducks to pick up his phone from under the covers of his bed. 

Jaejoong breaths in and stares at the gadget. "Okay, just tell him something came up," he mumbles to himself, and Yunho is confused when he hears it.

"Jae?" he says again, and this time Jaejoong jumps and faces him immediately, face bewildered.

"Yunho! Holy shit, how’d you get in here?" He shouts, and Yunho feels a little disconcerted at the unwelcomeness. 

"Sorry, you weren’t answering my knocks and the door was unlocked so I let myself in," he starts to explain, not liking how much of a stranger he’s being treated. He wouldn’t have exclaimed Jaejoong’s name like that if he walked in the penthouse. 

He thinks, he wants to be that guy, who holds the spare keys to his apartment, who could go in any time, surprise him on a stressful day without having to text a rendezvous.

"Fucking Heechul forgot to lock the door. Thank god it’s just you. I heard rumours of burglary recently!"

Jaejoong’s apartment is unsafe? He doesn’t like that, he should do something about it, maybe install a security system or something, Yunho thinks, but then Jaejoong moves to grab a shirt, and Yunho is distracted by the way he moves and how the shirt slips against his skin. 

He walks towards him, wrapping an arm around his waist, catching the patch of skin on his waist before the cloth falls on it. 

Jaejoong is handsome like this. Without even thinking, Yunho dips his head for a quick peck, "You didn’t get the messages?"

"What messages?" Jaejoong still looks like he had the wind knocked out of him.

"Changmin’s been texting you, that we were on our way, but you weren’t answering so I decided to head up."

"Oh. Wow. You guys are early. Sorry. My phone was somehow..uhh..lost under my mattress," Jaejoong looks a little bit guilty. "Yunho. I have to tell you something," it’s harder to say it now that Yunho is right in front of him, but he had thought about it in the shower, and he feels resolute: it’s not a good idea to go back to Naju.

He hates that he’s being flaky, but if it were any other situation, he wouldn’t have said yes in the first place, but Yunho, with his strange ability to make him forget himself has done a number on him.

"What is it?" The other asks. "Fuck, wait," Yunho doesn’t seem to catch the seriousness in his voice, distracted by the droplets of water decorating the skin along his neck. Yunho is weak for that, so naturally he dips down to lick at the the wet patch of skin. 

"I need to tell you something.  Yunho—" but instead of being reprimanding like Jaejoong intended, his voice comes out with a tone of need. He lets  Yunho lap his skin, not being able to resist the sensual feeling of his tongue against him. It doesn’t help when Yunho’s hands move downward, moving past the band of his pants. 

What was he about to say to him again?

Jaejoong hears a low, rather pleased groan from Yunho, who is happy for seeing that he isn’t wearing any underwear. Yunho bites down his neck in appreciation.

Yunho wins against Jaejoong’s better judgement once again. 

Yunho drags a finger between his ass cheeks and he moans, this is better, so much better than having to think about Naju. Oh god he doesn’t want to think about Naju. Jaejoong tries to push it at the back of his head, wanting to feel more of Yunho’s touch rather than think, he pushes himself towards the taller man, his lips growing more desperate.

He clutches his shirt and pulls him closer, making the kiss their sharing rougher, jamming his tongue in and it seems to take Yunho by surprise but he isn’t resisting so Jaejoong just moves along taking the lead.

Yunho always tastes better mixed with his anxiety.

Yes, delicious, Yunho and uncomplicated physical proximity. Yes, more of that.

"Changmin is waiting downstairs," Yunho breathes hotly against his mouth.

"How long before he notices we’re fucking?"

"No clue, but I can get you off in two minutes."

"Arrogant fucker!"

"Done it before," Yunho smirks before Jaejoong climbs on to him and he expertly hooks a hand under his legs to take them to the bed and as soon as they make it, Jaejoong sits up and starts divesting him of his clothes roughly. There’s no time to think, he just wants to feel, feel, feel.

Yunho looks at Jaejoong’s overheated face. He’s breathing heavily, and there’s sweat and mixed with his slightly damped hair. He kisses his forehead where strands of his hair are sticking to calm him down. "Hey, we don’t really have to finish in a minute," he jokes, trying to slow him down a little.

Yunho is a little confused at the desperation, because Jaejoong isn’t supposed be desperate, they were going to spend two weeks together. They were supposed to be going at it slowly, maybe even happily revelling at all the time they’ll have to themselves.

"I just, fuck, I want your cock." Jaejoong’s voice is low, and it sends a shiver down Yunho’s spine. He wouldn’t want to deny Jaejoong that.

It doesn’t take long before Jaejoong’s waistband is already down the edge of his ass, and Yunho is sitting on his knees, dick out of his pants. 

Yunho tries to move away to fetch some lube from the bedside drawer, but Jaejoong stops him. "There’s a bottle behind you, condoms just right beside it," Yunho looks behind him and there are indeed condoms and lube sprawled on he bed. He nods, grabs it and lathers himself.

He pulls the sweatpants completely off, prepping Jaejoong before bending his knees and entering him. He’s a few strokes in before he realises the mess around them, on the bed, on the floor.

He stops, and Jaejoong bucks his hips. When Yunho doesn’t respond, he lifts himself up with his elbows, "What?" he asks wondering why he suddenly stopped moving. He immediately notices Yunho scanning the room.

"You’re not yet done packing?"

Oh. He abandoned that. He’s not going. Yea, yea, he remembers he was supposed to tell Yunho.

Just like that the frenzy is gone, and he is levelled back to reality.

Jaejoong groans before falling back in the sheets, closing his eyes. For a moment, he thought he could get away with it, fuck Yunho until he forgets to even go to Naju. 

He feels a soft lips right below his left ear. "What’s the matter?"

Jaejoong really wishes they could just fuck the conversation away. He looks at Yunho straight in the eye, sighing before telling the one thing he’s been avoiding to confront, "I don’t think I should go."

Yunho gets off him immediately, pulling out, earning a loud groan from Jaejoong, "What?  Why?" Jaejoong hears fear and rejection in Yunho’s strained voice.

He doesn’t even know how to answer that himself. He takes one second, two, three, there’s silence between them and he struggles to find something, anything to reply just so Yunho can stop looking at him the way he is.

"I mean, you have Changmin, and it’s supposed to be time for you and your family, and you wouldn’t want me to be in the middle of that, would you?"

"I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want you there," Yunho brings a hand to rub his side, and Jaejoong relaxes a little bit, as he feels Yunho settling back between his legs.

"I really shouldn’t go."

"You’re not making any sense."

Yunho’s cock comes in contact with his ass again, and Jaejoong tries to focus on something other than that, but it doesn’t help when Yunho catches his mouth again. "Don’t even—"

"Yunho."

The man looks up again, his eyes dead serious, Jaejoong thinks that what he probably looks like when he’s in court. "What do I have to do to get you to change your mind?"

Jaejoong swallows.

"Didn’t I tell you I needed you?"

And it all comes crashing.

Those words shift something inside of Jaejoong, and he says nothing, he does nothing but pull Yunho towards him. "So how much do you need me?" he whispers.

"I’ll show you," Yunho’s eyes darken as he uses his hand to guide his cock to push into Jaejoong again. 

It takes them five minutes to finish. 

By the time they’re done, they’re both panting, staring at the ceiling, not really sure of what took over either of them.

"It’ll be fine," Yunho says with an exhale.

Jaejoong turns to him, and when Yunho says things like that he knows he has no choice but to believe. He’d been doomed from the start. "Okay," Jaejoong says weakly, why is it that with Yunho, he always feels like he has no choice?

Those words take Yunho to a completely different mood and he rolls over to Jaejoong again, "Don’t fucking scare me like that," he says, feeling a lot more content now that he’s a hundred percent sure Jaejoong is going. 

"Scared of what? That no one in Naju good enough to fuck you?" Jaejoong mocks him, lightly slapping his face away so that he’s not staring.

"No one. Not even close," Yunho smiles a smug smile.

A quick fuck and an even quicker effort to pack up and clean everything up. They make their way downstairs and catch Changmin leaning against the car, both in a much better mood. Jaejoong is dazed and no longer as skeptical, and Yunho is just elated that Jaejoong is there.

"Squirt, your turn to drive!" Yunho throws him the automatic keys, which was more symbolic than practical because the BMW had a keyless start up anyway.

Yunho can be such an asshole.

Changmin’s jaw almost drops as he watches the two of them pass in front of him. Yunho’s hand around Jaejoong’s waist. Jaejoong doesn’t even spare him a glance, too caught up in some lovey dovey bullshit Yunho just whispered. He takes in their messy hair and wrinkled clothes as they enter the car. Is that cum sticking out of Yunho’s hair? 

When Changmin takes a seat in front of the wheel, the two are already making out in the back. He glances at the rear view mirror just in time to catchJaejoong slipping his tongue into Yunho’s mouth with his brother’s hand snaking it’s way inside his shirt.

Changmin knows it’s going to be one long ride to Naju.

 

* * *

 

Changmin is staring at the empty road ahead. They’re parked right outside of a gasoline station, already in the outskirts of Seoul. He’s still on the driver’s seat, and they still have at least three hours of driving to go.

He glances to his left where he can see Yunho through the side mirror. His brother is pacing back and forth with a phone to his ear, probably talking to someone from work. If they weren’t by a gas station he would have had a cigarette between his fingers. 

Jaejoong is nowhere to be seen, he’s at the store picking up some drinks and snacks for them during the ride.

Thankfully, The two of them stopped making out like hormone induced teenagers after hour into the drive, but nothing stopped the stolen kisses and lingering touches. 

Changmin’s meta bunch of the men and women Yunho’s dated before, but none of them even comes close to getting him worked up like Jaejoong does. Yunho cannot take his hands off him.  And god, can Jaejoong keep up with him.

He jumps a little bit at the sound of the door opening and closing. It’s Yunho who takes a seat beside him on the passenger side, hair a little bit tousled, both from the wind outside and Jaejoong’s fingers toying with it earlier. 

"You alright?" Yunho asks, noticing how quiet his younger brother’s been the whole time. Yunho taps his cheek with the back of his hand and he let’s out an annoyed grunt. 

Yunho smiles at the scowl. "Don’t do that!" Changmin rubs the spot.

"You’re in a bad mood."

"You figure?" He answers honestly, there’s no point trying to hide anything from Yunho, not that he wants to.

"Wow, the fuck happened to you?"

He finally looks at Yunho, "Having my brother make out in the back seat while I'm driving like a chauffeur isn’t exactly the best way totravel."

Yunho is startled at the hostile response. Changmin has never minded. They’ve both always been open about these things. When they were in high school Changmin would walk in on him and his girlfriend making out in the living room couch, and his little brother gave so little shit that sometimes he’d watch the television or play video games while they were at it, only throwing a pillow or two at them if they were being too loud. Heck, he’s driven Changmin to and paid for his hotel room once when he hooked up with someone he met at a music festival. Changmin and his companion were practically having sex, dry humping and moaning like crazy at the back of his car, it was objectively way raunchier.

"Really? I’ve seen you do worse things."

"So? We’re adults now, you’re being inappropriate!"

Yunho takes a deep breath, "Okay, sorry for being a horny jerk."

Yunho watches Changmin but he doesn’t answer. He stares at his brother’s stoic expression. Suddenly he feels a little guilty, maybe it did bother Changmin more than he realised.

"Hey. Look. I’m sorry, I know this trip was supposed to be just us. But, it’s just—" He pauses, "No matter what, you’re my little brother you know that, right? I mean Jaejoong and I just—…I mean…"he stumbles on his words, but half way through he notices Changmin’s straight face morph into a chastising grin as if to say his big brother is being embarrassing. 

So the little shit is teasing him now, is he?

"You brat!" Yunho grabs him by the neck and gives him a noogie.

Changmin tries to escape, "Hyung! What the fuck stop it! Hey! Stop!" He’s annoyed but he also doesn’t hold back a laugh.

When Yunho let’s him go, Changmin’s ears are red and he’s back to wearing a scowl, but this time more playful than anything else. "At least you’re aware you’re a horny jerk. It’s gross."

His older brother only laughs. 

Changmin catches a glimpse of Jaejoong walking back with a paper bag in his arms, _"_ So he’s really coming home with us, huh? You’re really introducing him to mom?" Yunho turns to the direction Changmin is looking and also sees Jaejoong, watching him and realising, that it is real, the that he technically is taking him home to meet his mom.

Before he replies, Changmin steps out of the car. "Oh. And by the way, you’re driving for the rest of the way home."

Yunho watches his brother move to the back, Jaejoong also enters the back seat, a little surprised that it was Changmin sitting in there and not Yunho.

"Oh hi!" Changmin only lifts his chin in acknowledgement, as he settles the snacks and drinks. He glances over to Yunho who is clumsily climbing the seats to make his way to the driver’s seat.

"You’re so dumb, just get off the car and walk your way around like a normal person!" Changmin barks. Jaejoong is amused at how much Changmin berates his older brother sometimes. It’s all in good affection.

When Yunho settles, he looks over through the rear view mirror, "You want to sit beside me Jae?"

Jaejoong turns to Changmin and smiles, "I’m good here." Something in Changmin’s stomach tosses upside down. He suddenly feels way better.

 

* * *

 

The intro of The Kingsmen’s Louie Louie starts to play as they enter the their district proper. Changmin has long hijacked the car’s stereo and they’ve been playing 60’s rock and roll since then.

Yunho finds that he quite enjoys Jaejoong and Changmin singing like idiots in the background. They’d hit a note flat, Changmin would start giggling, Jaejoong would follow. 

He specially likes it when a particular songs comes up and Jaejoong decides he wants to sing it properly, and Changmin would join him harmoniously. The two of them had excellent voices that melded in perfectly together. 

A few times either of the two would start a conversation about the song or something about the history of the time it came out. Like how when Louie Louie came up, Changmin started talking about how blues rock started spreading when the British bands got interested in southern rock. 

Yunho knew Changmin and Jaejoong got along, but he’d only then realised how much in synch they really were with their interests, they bounced off each other. It makes Yunho relieved to know that they get along so well.

Jaejoong is bobbing his head to the music, and he thinks that maybe fear is worse than the actual thing, sitting at the back of Yunho’s car, jamming with Changmin was so much fun, the worries he’s had has somehow blew over his head.

"Is that our old high school?" Jaejoong says, looking out the window.

Changmin hovers behind him, "Yup. I still recognise those bleachers from the football field."

"I remember those bleachers. It was the first time I played a game as team captain and we lost, my coach was so mad at me," Yunho doesn’t take has eyes off the road. That was bittersweet, he smiles at the memory he learned a lot that night.

"Hah! That was where I smoked my first joint," Changmin added.

Jaejoong only chuckles, "First time I ever gave a blow job."

Yunho and Changmin almost choke.

"What?"

"Your first blowjob was in the bleachers of a public football field? Wild." Changmin says, trying to get rid of the mental image of a teenaged Jaejoong going down on someone in the bleachers he remembers so well.

"He was a senior, I was a freshman and he wasn’t impressed with my kissing."

"So you thought impressing him by giving a blowjob was the next logical step?"

"Well, he did get impressed. I’d been practicing on cucumbers for weeks!"

Yunho let’s out a frustrated sigh, he thinks of how fun it would’ve been if they were the ones who got to experiment with each other when they were younger.

"Having trouble imagining Jaejoong with someone else hyung?" Changmin chides.

"He has no right to. Yunho wouldn’t even spare me a glance, too busy with all his cool and pretty friends. Not even when I was batting my eyelids at him."

That was new information, "Wait. You had a crush on me back then?"

"Yunho. Everyone had a crush on you back then," Jaejoong rolls his eyes, he sees a smirk on Yunho’s face through the rear-view mirror, "But don’t get too cocky, you were nothing compared to my ultimate crush, Seo Kangjoon. Met him at detention once, what a bad boy."

The brothers both give annoyed huffs, both immediately deciding that they hated Seo Kangjoon. "He’s an asshole," they say in perfect synchrony and Jaejoong laughs at the top of his lungs.

All three of them haven’t visited Naju in quite some time, so the feeling of nostalgia hits them as they drive through town. So many things have changed, old buildings torn down, trees they used to climb are long gone, empty spaces are now filled with convenience stores and cafes, and yet it still felt all familiar.

They pass by the old playground and the pool that’s been converted to a flower park, and a few local stores that have stood the test of time. There were not many cars in the area at that time, so Yunho drove smoothly and casually through the streets, he himself taking in all the things that were rushing back in his mind.

They stay quiet for quite a while, each of them a tiny bit lost in their own memories and thoughts.

Changmin takes a glimpse at Jaejoong and notices that he is uneasily fiddling with the sleeves of the sweater he’s wearing. The other is looking out the window, seemingly adrift somewhere else. 

They’re almost at the Kim’s old grocery. It was Jaejoong’s family’s small business back in the day, but it has long been closed. 

"It’s the old family grocery," Yunho points it out, but he earns a look of warning from Changmin through the rear-view mirror. It’s only then that Yunho notices the way Jaejoong is chewing his lips the way he always does when he’s anxious. 

Changmin scoots towards Jaejoong, "Hey."

"Ah. Oh. Sorry!" He shuts his eyes as if dismissing a thought, "Yea, it’s been a while, I’ve always thought dad sold this off but I guess not, that or no one’s really interested in buying. Anyway, do you guys remember that old tunnel by the creek?"

"Yea. Fuck man, that used to scare the shit out of me," Yunho is relieved that Changmin was kind enough to go along with the conversation, and that seemed to put Jaejoong at ease.

It has only occurred to Yunho that he didn’t really know much about Jaejoong and his family nor about how he felt about going back to Naju, and he notes that maybe he should talk to him about it later.

Yunho takes a detour, going around some of their childhood spots, it takes them about thirty minutes more than the usual time to make it back to their own home, but finally they are pulling up the curb.

Their house, aside from a small paint job on the pale yellow walls was the same as he remembered. You could still see Tammy, peaking through the roof of the house, there was still a stone path leading to the front porch where a floral hammock was still hung. The step first step leading up to the door, where Changmin had tripped over and broken it when they were younger, still remains unfixed through the years.

It was a simply two story box shaped house, nothing grand, but it was home. They were finally home.

He stops the engine right in front. "Hyung."

"What?"

"Last one to the door is washing the dishes for the whole two weeks,"

Yunho is suddenly alert, it’s a game they’ve always played.

"Okay…in three…two" Changmin opens the door and rushes out before the count ends and Yunho curses before getting out himself. 

The two men bolt out of to the front door, pushing each other to get ahead, and Jaejoong is left blinking at them acting like absolute children. The car is empty and he is both confused and amused at how Yunho and Changmin seemed to have reverted to 10 year olds the moment they arrived.

 

* * *

 

"I’m so sorry I haven’t watered you in days little ones, but I was just so busy preparing for my babies coming home, you know?" Sungryung is in the middle of watering her mini cacti when she hears stomping footsteps followed by a loud bang on the door.She pauses, trying to decipher what it is.

She hears another bang, followed by more consecutive stomps. Her front door rattles, and then she hears something heavy landing on the floor.

She immediately turns her head to the entrance. They’re here. Here eyes light up, and her heart flutters. She moves towards the door and she can already hear her sons through it.

"Did you have to pull on my shirt, dipshit?"

"I have a fucking scratch on the back of my neck because of you!"

"Well who’s the little hairless dick who ran before counting to _one?_ "

Sungryung raises her eyebrows at the banter, and she steps back when the door is hit over and over again. "Are you two trying to break my door open?" when she finally swings it open, she sees the sight of her two adult sons on the floor of her porch legs tangled, hands roughly around each other. They haven’t grown out of their very poor attempts of wrestling.

Yunho and Changmin pause at the view of their mother until Yunho says, "Okay, first one to kiss mom wins."

The two of them immediately scramble to to get up, the first one standing is Changmin and he’s about to kiss their mom’s cheeks but Yunho pulls his hair to keep him from it. "Ouch! That hurt you motherfu—"

"Boys!"

They both freeze at the sound of their mother’s voice. "Both of you will be doing dishes alternately regardless of who wins. I can’t believe you’d still play this!" Sungryung interjects, all to familiar with her sons’ porch games, and it always meant a fight to the end with who gets to wash dishes.

Yunho and Changmin pause, both realising how silly they are. "Now come here and hug your mom!" They both obediently do so.

If her heart was already fluttering upon their arrival earlier, now it was ready to burst out of her chest. She knew she missed her sons deeply, but never really realised how much until she felt their warmth again.

She kisses them again after the hug, first Changmin and then Yunho, leaving a hand on each of her sons’ cheeks. They were still so handsome, still her little boys.

"How was the drive back?"

Changmin answers, talking about the long way and how nostalgic it was to be back in town. Sungryung catches Jaejoong who is standing awkwardly by the car, watching them.

She gasps and then slaps Yunho hard on his arm. "Yunho! Did you just leave our guest in the car?"

Yunho is quickly hyper-aware of Jaejoong’s presence. He jogs towards him to fetch him, "Sorry," he mumbles against him before leading him to his mother.

He wraps an arm securely around Jaejoong, he’s not really sure if he’d done it to give Jaejoong support, or if it was more for his own benefit, to calm himself down. He feels like vomiting. He’s nervous. 

"Mom, this is Kim Jaejoong— I—I don’t know if you remember. They used to live a few blocks away,and he’s—"

"Yunho managed to snag a super hot boyfriend who happens to be a childhood friend," Changmin cut off, impatient of the clumsy, anxious words of his brother.

Sungryung beams as bright as the sun, immediately cupping Jaejoong’s cheek, he’s jumpy at first but relaxes against her touch "Oh my god, you are so gorgeous!"

Yunho feels Jaejoong stiffen a little bit and he squeezes his side.  "You’re the first person he’s ever brought home as an adult, you know? Can you believe that? After all these years, and all those dates and sex ventures he’s gone through. Then again, you two are at that age where you’re settling down."

Yunho wants to sink to the ground. He never cleared it up with his mother. All he said was that he was brining Jaejoong over.

"Come on in. Sorry you had to see my two boys acting like children! But that’s the kind of boyfriend you signed up for Jaejoong!" 

_Boyfriend._

Yunho pauses at the word. He doesn’t breathe, he nervously glances at Jaejoong.

He holds his breath. One. Two. Three.

But Jaejoong doesn’t correct her. 

So he doesn’t either.

Sungryung notices the tension but reads it completely differently. She smiles slyly, "So Jaejoong, your room will be the third one on the right. You’re sleeping at Yunho’s old room, and Yunho, I added an extra mattress in Changmin’s room you can stay with him. You know I’m still old fashioned, you two aren’t sleeping on the same bed not under my roof."

Three mouths hang wide open.

"Mom—"

Sungryung then bursts out howling, "Just messing with you, there are condoms and lube in the cupboard, and extra sheets in Yunho’s room" She wiggles her nose, giving Jaejoong and Yunho a knowing look.

For the first time since they arrived, Yunho feels the tension deflate from Jaejoong, as he laughs at Sungryung’s words, and it feels like a thorn just got plucked out of him.

Sungryung gives a warm smile to the pair, before grabbing Changmin by the arm, "Your faces were priceless! Come on, Changmin, let’s pick up some of the luggage while your brother shows his boyfriend around."

Yunho and Jaejoong are left inside the house together, "Some mom you got there. I remember her being fun, but not like this" Jaejoong says.

"Jaejoong I—" But before Yunho can say anything, Jaejoong is pulling him to the second floor, third room on the right, just as how Sungryung explained. 

Yunho lets himself be led.

 

* * *

 

"Wow, t his is the most bisexual friendly room I’ve ever walked into," Jaejoong breathes out in amusement when enters Yunho’s bedroom. 

There was a poster of Jessica Lange in her tattered dress from King Kong on the back of the door, but there’s also an old photo calendar of half naked men on the wall across it. There’s pile of magazines, a mix of Playboy and DNA issues, that lay on one corner.

Yunho’s room was average size, full of clutter, and random knickknacks, like pogs and Captain Tsubasa trading badges. Even his bed sheets were mismatched, Ducktales bed cover and an X-men duvet. It was completely different from his very contrived posh condo unit in Seoul. 

He had a shelf full of football trophies, and photo frames, old Korean baseball cards, some arcade tickets which Jaejoong recognised were from the local game shop. It was like his room stopped in time. Jaejoong’s learned so much about Yunho already just by looking around.

Jaejoong moves towards the photo frames, although not his own memorabilia, memories of their younger selves come running back to him.

"Kim Yujin, huh?" Jaejoong picks up one frame with a photo of a teenager in a fluffy pink dress. 

Yunho moves closer to him, "She was my prom date, who was yours?"

"Didn’t go to prom. Too busy getting fucked by a college boy," He has a fond smile on his face, he remembers that night well. That guy was good, really good, it might’ve been the first time he’s had more than one round of sex in one night. "It was way better than attending a stupid dance, although I think I would’ve liked seeing you get the prom king title." 

"I was never prom king," Yunho dismisses, "Shit Jaejoong, you slept around that much even in high school?" Yunho says, not really liking the sugary smile Jaejoong has from the memory.

"And you didn’t? I heard she wasn’t wearing panties underneath that dress, and that you took it much to your advantage," he raises an eyebrow, "I’ve heard rumours about you, our high school isn’t that big."

Yunho only shakes his head. He did have a long list of conquests in his youth, truth be told, even as an adult.

He glances at the frames again, and notices one group picture of their class, with Jaejoong standing in the back row. "I would’ve spared you a glance, you know."

"Except you never did."

Yunho frowns at that.

"All those popular kids in school would shit their pants if they ever found out that in the end, I’d be the one warming Naju’s golden boy’s bed."

"You’re impossible" He laughs along.

It’s true though, who would’ve thought?

 

* * *

 

It’s already late at night, much to the contrast of their first dinner together earlier, the house is now silent. There’s a stack of dirty plates on the kitchen sink that Yunho’s promised to wash first thing in the morning. The lights are almost all turned off, except for the living room.

Sungryung is sitting on the green couch in front of the television, photo albums are spread out all over, some laying on her knees. She thought it would be a good idea to take them out to show Jaejoong the next day. She likes to think she has a good judge of character, and the moment she saw him walk the pavement of their home, she knew he was someone who’d make Yunho happy, and she is all for that.

She’s always been worried for him, for both her sons. It was quite hypocritical of her to be protective and to want to coddle them, considering that she’d left home herself even before she turned 18, but Yunho and Changmin are her everything, and even though she wants to be that person who keeps them safe from the rest of the world, she’s also glad that as of now, at least one of them has found someone for them.

She browses through the pages of the album, there are photos of Christmas mornings of Yunho and Changmin with big grins on their faces as they unwrapped presents. There arephotos of Changmin from the hospital with a cast on his leg after a fight with Yunho led to him falling off the porch, one of Yunho carrying Changmin on his back with the other carrying a bucket of fish they’d bated from the nearby stream.

It’s been a while since she’s reminisced like this. Her eyes water but no tear falls.

Children grow up so fast and although she was there for all their formative years, she’s always felt that she’s never done enough.

She hears footsteps going down the stairs, a familiar thump-thump of rushed feet landing two steps at a time. It was Changmin, he’d always go down the stairs in that rhythm.

Her younger son is surprised when he sees his mother in the living room, "You’re still awake?"

"So are you."

"I got hungry," Changmin shrugs. "Watcha looking at?"

He hasn’t changed at all. Changmin who has a vortex of a stomach.

"Old photo albums. I’m thinking of showing them to Jaejoong," Sungryung gets up. "I’ll make you some tea and I have a batch of those pumpkin spice cookies you always loved. Stay here."

Changmin quickly breaks into a grin. "Are you serious? Nice!" he tosses himself to the couch, casually grabbing an album to look at while waiting. "Can I have the cookies warmed please, and cream on the side?"

Sungryung nods, finding her son adorable. 

"You think your brother’s still awake? They said they had a lot to unpack, never heard from them since dinner, they might want a snack too."

Changmin wrinkles his nose, "They’re probably fucking."

"Language!"

She sees Changmin scrunch his face at her warning, before she leaves for the kitchen.

A little bit later, Changmin is already happily snacking on the cookies and tea downstairs, and Sungryung finds herself at the door of Yunho’s bedroom. She can see the light coming from the the cracks of the door so she figures they haven’t retired off to bed yet.

She leans onto the for to make sure there are no dubious noises. She knocks once before gently opening it.

Her eyes immediately find Yunho and Jaejoong on the bed, they’re both completely dressed, Jaejoong is reclined on the bedpost fiddling with his phone, Yunho sleeping and breathing calmly on his chest. The other is playing with the hair on his nape.

Jaejoong notices her and he gives her a polite but very kind smile. She feels hearty. She knew she liked Jaejoong the moment she saw him, she feels his warmth, their warmth and she really is happy he’s there with Yunho. She smiles back at Jaejoong, putting a finger on her lips to tell him that she’ll keep it quiet. 

She closes the door, and goes down the stairs. She thought she’d be one of those overbearing mothers who’d end up hating anyone who touched their son, but she could tell, when she first saw Yunho holding him to the way Yunho would look at him throughout dinner, that her son was in love and after seeing the way Jaejoong held Yunho earlier, she was thrilled that perhaps, Jaejoong loved him just as much.

"So did you walk in on them? Were they fucking?" She doesn’t catch the hint of bitterness in Changmin’s voice, but she’s not pleased with his attitude.

"Oh stop it! Your brother is sleeping."

Mother and son sit together in the couch and look through the albums together. Changmin notices the silly grin playing on her face. "Jaejoong’s good for your brother don’t you think?" she says cheerfully.

Changmin stares at his mother. It feels strange hearing that from her. He feels coldness at the pit of his gut as he forces out an answer, "Y-Yea, he is," he says as he glances over an old photo of him and Yunho fighting over their favourite action figure, each one holding an arm and pulling the toy to their direction. He doesn’t remember who’d won it over.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness. It's been such a long time since I posted! I've tweeted it, but I've been really busy, plus I made changes in ch 12, which will change the trajectory of the fic, so I needed time to edit previous chapters and make sure they would fit in.
> 
> Anyhoo. I know a lot of the people who read this are YunJae fans, and probably focus on their story line, but I just love the dynamic between HoMin as well, and I thought I needed to inject more of their relationship with each other as well as their mother. Some of my favourite parts of this chapter were the sibling squabbles and their interactions with Sungryung. What do you think? Hee~ Also, any predictions of what will happen in Naju? :p 
> 
> Also, thank you so much for all the comments. I know I don't have a lot of people reading this fic, but those who do are the best! I love reading all the long comments and the theories and all your feelings. I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH THEY MAKE ME HAPPY. All smiles when I read them (even when some of ya'll go emo on me. :p)


	9. Everybody Loves Somebody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was almost unnatural to him. Being in a room with Yunho meant fucking, that’s how it’s always been. 
> 
> He stares at Yunho’s sleeping face, so peaceful and unbothered with the world, he’d watched him sleep before, but something was different with him at that moment, with the early sun casting its rays through the window of his childhood bedroom. He looked so peaceful.

 

Jaejoong wakes up feeling a little bit too hot. Why is it so hot?

His eyes open lazily, and he immediately notices the weight against him, the heat was coming off Yunho’s body. Half of him is on top of his frame, and he feels his breath against his skin through the opened neckline of his shirt.

His half open eyes land on Yunho, but he feels more than he sees. The room is quiet, save for their breaths, and Jaejoong can feel the rising and falling of Yunho’s chest against him. 

Strange.

His eyes move away from him, looking around the room, his mind not catching up with his awakened state yet. This isn’t his apartment, it’s not Yunho’s penthouse either. He’s a little confused. He doesn’t recognise the cream coloured wall, or the football trophies decorating the shelves.

Then it hits him.

He remembers where he is. He’s in Naju. 

_Home sweet home._

Not really.

He tries to move but Yunho is heavy against him. "Yunho," he whispers as he tries to wake him, but the other is oblivious to anything outside the realm of his sleep. 

Jaejoong was not in the mood to haul a grown ass man to wake up, so he sighs and scans the room again. He’d taken it all in last night as they unpacked, or at least tried to unpack, but even then it was still all so unfamiliar, and he feels like he’s invading a part of Yunho that he’s not meant to. 

Not that he wasn’t welcome, Sungryung, Changmin and Yunho had been the nicest to him.

He remembers dinner, he’d never seen Yunho and Changmin so chatty with each other before. Sungryung was one hell of a great conversationalist herself. She was a very interesting woman with a lot of stories to tell, not to mention she made the best samgyetang Jaejoong has ever tasted in his entire life. He could see where some of the boys’ quirks came from. The way she moves her hands as she spoke, the same way Yunho does when he tells an elaborate story about work, or the way her eyes would grow bigger when talking about something she’s excited about, just like Changmin. 

He recalls heading off early with Yunho to his room last night, they were extremely tired from the long ride, too tired they’re even wearing yesterday’s clothes.

It’s only then that Jaejoong becomes aware of the fact that Yunho is fully clothed against him. They didn’t have sex last night. Nothing, no touching, not even a make out session on his bed.

They’ve never been in bed together without sex.

It was almost unnatural to him. Being in a room with Yunho meant fucking, that’s how it’s always been. 

He stares at Yunho’s sleeping face, so peaceful and unbothered with the world, he’d watched him sleep before, but something was different with him at that moment, with the early sun casting its rays through the window of his childhood bedroom. He looked so peaceful.

Yunho moves, wrapping his arm tighter around him, nuzzling his head deeper against his chest. He feels close. So close.

A shiver runs up Jaejoong’s spine.

Yunho feels odd against his skin.

He’s realising that maybe Heechul is right, this is insane.

Jaejoong suddenly feels like he wants to go home, except he can’t just slip out of the sheets, grab his things, leave a note, and take off. He can’t do that, not when his apartment was about 300 kilometres away.

Would it be too early to come up with an excuse to take the next bus ride home and run away? 

That’s too much.

Maybe he’s overreacting, maybe he doesn’t really need to go home. Maybe he just needs a cigarette, a glass of hard whiskey. Maybe he needs a joint.

He needs.

Needs.

Needs something.

Maybe, more skin. Yes. More skin and less clothes.

Jaejoong shifts under Yunho’s weight, his palm finding Yunho’s cock against his sweatpants. He does a combination of stroking and palming against it until he feels it hardening, before he starts touching himself too. 

Jaejoong knows Yunho is half awake when he shifts and moans against him, pushing his hips against his moving hand.

"Morning," he says, catching Yunho’s half lidded eyelids.

"Fuck, what a good dream," he hears Yunho’s raspy morning voice. Finally, the weight on top of him lightens as Yunho moves himself into a more accessible position. Jaejoong takes off his shirt, before licking at Yunho’s neck. 

"Not a dream," he says before he slips further down on the bed, it’s way smaller than what Yunho has back in Seoul, but it will do.

Sex first thing in the morning with Yunho. 

That was familiar. He needed that.

 

* * *

 

Their house has four bathrooms, one on the first floor, one in their mom’s room, one in his room and one in the second floor hallway. Jaejoong was already using the one in his room, and no way in hell is he going to risk going to any place where he has to face their mother while he reeks of sex, so goes straight to the smallest bathroom, the one on the second floor hallway. 

Yunho’s only holding a tattered blanket against and around his crotch and ass, barely covering anything despite his attempt. He whips the door open only to see Changmin tucking himself in his pants after a piss. "What the hell?" his brother looks at him with wide eyes.

"You might want to learn to lock the door," he says, jamming himself in the tight space, there’s one too many bodies in there already.

"You might want to learn how to get the fuck out as soon as you see a bathroom’s occupied!" Changmin answers back, obviously offended at his sudden invasion.

"I need to use the shower."

"Fuck off!" 

Yunho ignore him and moves past to get to the shower.

"I need to wash cum off my ass!"

"What the fuck?" Only then does Changmin notice that his brother is  an absolute mess. Yunho’s hair looked like a birds nest, his lips are definitely swollen, and he has blunt nail marks over his chest, neck and shoulders.

Yunho sees Changmin’s face morph into shock, disgust and then absolute horror. His brother immediately storms out, making sure not to get anywhere near him. 

"You. Are. So. Fucking. Disgusting. Ghastly! My brother is a ghastly sex fiend!" he exclaims as he storms out of the bathroom, slamming the door as he leaves.

Yunho had no shame, he really didn’t, but he’s in too much of a fucking good mood to care about what his brother thought.

He has a stupid grin on his face.

He’s back home, he’d just gotten the best morning blowjob, followed by some good carnal fucking. If that was what most of his vacation is going to look like, then he’s probably going to have a damn hard time ever wanting to leave.

Yunho cleans himself up, enjoying the warm water against him. He would’ve liked it if he showered together with Jaejoong, but they both agreed that it would’ve been very counter productive. They had more days on the calendar, and Yunho knows there’s no need for them to rush anything.

After his quick shower, Yunho walks in his room with only a towel covering him up. He expects it to be empty, but he sees Jaejoong, who had already finished before him sitting on the edge of his bed, perfectly dressed with a grey pullover and jeans.

Yunho frowns, the cheerfulness leaving him immediately. He’d spoken too soon, hadn’t he? 

Something was wrong.

"I thought I said you could go downstairs ahead of me?" Had that been too much of him to ask? 

He watches Jaejoong some more, he looked a little anxious. A lot anxious.

Jaejoong shrugs, "I just wanted to wait for you." Yunho knows it’s a lie.

He likes to think he has Jaejoong’s physical cues figured out, specially when they were intimate.

He’s had enough sex with Jaejoong to read him, to know what kind of sex they’re having, and he wonders if he’s misread good morning sex with anxiety sex.

Was it not a god-i’m-happy-to-be-here-with-you fuck? Because that is damn sure what it was to him.

He wonders if maybe, Jaejoong is nervous about this like he is, hell, he’d been sick to his stomach yesterday just thinking about how Jaejoong would react, how his mother would react, but Yunho scratches that off the possibilities, because he was being an idiot.

Only real couples would get worried over what their family thinks of them, and he and Jaejoong, they’re not _that._

"Okay. I’ll just get dressed and let’s go down then?" 

"Can’t we stay here?" Jaejoong says invitingly with dark eyes, biting his lips, parting his legs a little. Yunho knows that that’s definitely a Jaejoong who wants to be distracted by sex, and it takes a hell lot of self control for Yunho not to indulge him.

He finishes up changing, trying hard not to think too much about Jaejoong’s strange mood, feeling a little hopeful when Jaejoong lets him guide him through the small of his back on the way downstairs.

They are in for a surprise when they enter the kitchen. There are several food containers laid out in the kitchen island, kimbap, ddeokbokki, chijimi, all their favourite food were being readied. 

"What’s all the food for?" Yunho voices out, he’d expected nothing else but a simple breakfast, instead there is a feast in front of him.

He looks at Changmin who is helping out packing spring rolls and he glares at him, still not forgetting their morning encounter.

"Changmin cut it out."

His younger brother doesn’t respond any further, only sticking out a middle finger at him, before answering the previous question with a straight tone and a shrug, "I was as surprised as you when I came down earlier. Apparently we’re going to a fair."

"What?"

Sungryung, who is on the counter preparing fruit, rolls her eyes at them. "I can’t believe you’ve all forgotten. It’s Naju’s annual festival. There’s going to be booths and a fireworks display and everything!"

Yunho groans at her words, "We’re going to that?"

"You used to love going!"

"Yea, when we were eight."

"We’ll you’re going to enjoy it as an adult as well." 

"I tried getting out of it earlier too. No way out," Changmin butts in, and Yunho sighs in defeat.

"What time are we leaving?"

Jaejoong watches them. He realises just how tight of a ship their mother ran, and even as adults Yunho and Changmin humoured her. It must be nice coming home to a caring and mother like her, he thinks.

"Jaejoong," he’s immediately pulled out of his thoughts at the sound of Sungryung’s voice. "I’ll prepare your breakfast plates, will you be a dear and continue slicing these oranges?"

He smiles at her and instantly moves in to help. Yunho watches this, some relief washes over him. He’s got to give his mother credit, she has a way with people. 

He knows Jaejoong knows his way around the kitchen, and he enjoys thinking of how impressed his mother would be with him. He watches him effortlessly move around. It’s going to be alright isn’t it? God he hopes it will be. 

"Hey, Yunho, why don’t you stop staring at your boyfriend and give a hand here too?" It’s his turn to interrupt his thoughts. He hadn’t even noticed he was staring. He feels a little bit embarrassed at getting caught. He glances at Jaejoong who only looks down and continues slicing fruit.

 

* * *

 

The usually empty street had turned into something that resembled to a buzzing flea market overnight. It’s barely recognisable from the lane that Yunho, Changmin and Jaejoong had just driven by the day before. 

All three of them had almost forgotten what a small town festival looked like. Seoul doesn’t really do any of the sorts. It was a humble little set up, with lanterns hanging, connecting every street lamp along the road, and there were a bunch of home made stalls by the side of the road. It was quaint, there were a bunch of different things to see, from fruit stalls, to fried squid, to game booths that range from ring tosses to whack-a-moles.

As soon as they’d arrived and set up a picnic spot, several of Sungryung’s friends had quickly approached her, greeting her and asking her to take a look at their booths. She was quite popular around town, everybody knows her for her yoga classes and homemade tea. Almost everybody who had come by immediately recognised Yunho and Changmin, and much to their chagrin and Jaejoong’s amusement, they all had some embarrassing story to share about either of them.

_"Oh my god, Yunho’s grown up so big! I remember for the longest time I kept giving him dresses because I kept forgetting he was a boy! He was such a delicate, pretty young boy!"_

_"Oh is this Changmin now? Remember that one time I caught you trying to rent porn from our old video store? It’s such a shame we had to close down that business!"_

_"I remember these two trouble makers! You asked me to watch them once and I dozed off for a second and good god, when I’d woken up, they were both gone! I almost had a heart attack when I found them on the top of a tree minutes later. They were giggling, but I swear the branch they were on was about to snap!"_

There was a series of groans and moans coming out of the siblings as each story unfolded. 

The bouts of humiliation and the awkward greetings towards people they barely remember did not last too long though, before the three of them had long left Sungryung to her own devices. She had become busy, as one of her friends had a recipe emergency—one of her kids put salt instead of sugar on the iced tea she was making—so she went off to redo everything.

Jaejoong takes a look around, he doesn’t remember much of growing up in Naju like this. He doubts anyone even recognised him, his parents weren’t like Sungryung, they didn’t go out much like Yunho and Changmin did. His father was busy with the grocery, and his mom…well, his mom was his mom.

Whatever small experience he has of the fair, he has vague memories of it as a kid, winning a goldfish at a game booth once, he remembers the taste of his first hotteok, or the first time he’d seen the flashy fireworks, but it was all melding into a blur for him. It was really strange being there, especially when he never thought he would ever be back anyway. 

He sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s never felt like he belonged in Naju.

"Onion rings!" Changmin exclaims as they pass by one booth. He already has stick of fishcake in his hands, but he moves towards it.

"Just try to catch up," Yunho says, as he and Jaejoong continue to walk along.

Yunho tries to study Jaejoong, still noticing the lingering uneasiness from him. It’s the first time since morning that he and Jaejoong had been together alone. "You alright?"

"Huh? Yea. Yea, I’m alright."

"Are you sure? You’ve been—" Yunho doesn’t get to finish his words, when a voice interrupts them.

"Yunho? Jung Yunho!" it is coming from a man in his middle thirties who is rushing to approach them.

"I didn’t expect to see you here," he says as he immediately gives him a firm handshake, and at first Yunho is confused, but he slowly starts to recognise him as a client from months ago.

He immediately shifts his stature, standing a little bit straighter, a glint of professionalism in his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"My wife. We have a baby coming our way and she said she wants to take a break so I’ve been working remote and we decided to move. We’re staying at Gwangju though, the accommodations are so much better there, but we dropped by to check out the festival," he says, talking with a quick voice. "I can ask the same about you though, I heard about that big merger you’re working on. That’s one hell of a job considering the mess, but if anyone’s going to pull it off it’s going to be Jung’s son, huh?"

Yunho pauses. That was the last thing he wanted to hear about. He _was_ working on it before his own father threw him out of the deal, he doesn’t correct him though, he doesn’t dare to do so. Reputation matters after all."Yea, I—just, I’m just visiting my mother. I’m from here."

"That’s nice," he says, completely unaware. "Great to be back huh? I guess even you need a break," the man’s eyes take a glance at Jaejoong.

Yunho quickly turns to him. "And this is Kim Jaejoong. He, uh, he’s a childhood friend, grew up in Naju as well."

The man offers him a hand and Jaejoong reciprocates, giving him something that looked like only half a smile, he gets something that looks like half a polite and half a dismissive nod in return.

He’s only met a few of them, but man, Jaejoong hates these rich snobs.

Soon enough the simple greeting turns into some business conversation crap he’s not interested in, so he decides to turn away and look around while Yunho is in his lawyer mode. He thinks it must be exhausting, even in his hometown someone’s there to recognise him as the illustrious Jung heir. He doesn’t want to be any part of that scene at all.

Just as he turns he sees Changmin catching up with a paper plate of onion rings that’s more than half way eaten.

"Hey, sorry, it took a while for these to fry."

"It’s alright," Jaejoong grabs a piece."Someone recognised your brother," he cocks his head to Yunho and his former client.

Changmin frowns disapprovingly. "Let’s get out of here."

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong finds himself at a creek he didn’t even know existed. He and Changmin are sharing a cigarette between them, just riding out the afternoon.

They’ve skipped rocks for a bit, and got distracted by an interesting beetle they found at a nearby tree, but ultimately decided that sitting down by the gently flowing water was way better. He liked it there, it was a lot more quiet, a lot more calm, and having conversations with Changmin was a lot better than all the small talk he’s been herded through throughout that day.

In between the moment of comfortable silence between them, he checks his phone and there is a message from Yunho.

**I’m caught up. I’ll catch up later.**

He doesn’t reply and just pockets his phone. Yunho can do whatever the hell he wants. He looks over to Changmin, looking for a conversation.

"How did you even know how to get here?"  


"Yunho and I almost died here once you know," Changmin starts with a chuckle, as he blows out smoke into the air.

"Oh?" Jaejoong isn’t even surprised.

"We were crossing that bridge," he points at the bridge that goes over the creek, a few meters away from them. "Yunho teased me about losing a race during P.E., and I got so full of it, I threw my shoe at him, but he dodged the thing, so it fell off right through the walk way and got stuck on the ledge below it."

It earns him a small laugh as he passes the cigarette to Jaejoong, and he takes it as the cue to continue, "He felt so guilty about it, and I made sure he did, I was crying, damn good ass crocodile tears. I just wanted him to feel bad. I went on until he actually attempted to go down the rails to fetch it, when I realised he was serious, I tried to stop him but I couldn’t convince him, so I followed him down. My hands were a lot smaller than his at that time, and I couldn’t grab onto anything properly. I slipped. Yunho, like the idiot that he is, immediately jumped after me without thinking. Neither of us could get back up because he hurt his ankle. We were stranded at the banks for about hours. Mom had to send out a search party for us. I’ve never seen her so mad and relieved at the same time, we were grounded for weeks. And well, that’s how I found out about this place."

Changmin revels at the memory, life threatening or not, it was simpler times, it was fun even, camping down there with Yunho, somehow both of them knew they were going to be safe anyway. At least, he knew he was because his big brother was there. 

Changmin was like that as a young child, blissfully reassured because big brother was around.

"Sounds like you two had one hell of a childhood," Jaejoong says, handing the stick to him again.

"Naju is a great place to grow up in."

Changmin observes him as he turns pensive over his words. Yunho isn’t the only one who’s noticed Jaejoong’s uneasy demeanour. It’s been there since yesterday, since he’d gone quiet when they’d passed by their old grocery, and it hasn’t left. "You alright?"

Jaejoong turns to him with a tinge of amusement, "Sometimes, it really feels like you and your brother are one person with two different bodies. He asked me the exact same thing earlier."

"Did you answer?" he might’ve sounded a little envious.

Jaejoong ignores his question. Changmin didn’t mean to make him upset.

"I don’t know. This place feels so weird to me. I constantly keep thinking I shouldn’t be here," Jaejoong lets it out.

"Why?"

"I just," he pauses again, looking as if he’s calculating his own words. "I don’t know, I guess, even when I was younger I don’t think I ever fit in, and with the mess with my—with some of the things that happened in my life, it’s—" he is quiet, looking out to the creek, taking a long drag from the cigarette that Changmin passes to him,"…it’s stupid."

"It’s probably not stupid."

Jaejoong shakes his head not wanting to get into the conversation. "Fuck. I’m speaking nonsense." He stands up and stretches his arms before taking a deep breath. "I’m getting hungry."

Changmin looks at him, he wants to know more, he wants to listen, to maybe even make it better for him, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t want to get into it. And even though he knows he’s not in the position to prod at whatever it is that’s bothering Jaejoong, it’s a little disappointing, maybe he thought they were a lot more closer than they actually are.

He tries not to dwell on it too much, all he knows is that he just wants to say something, anything to fix it. "If it’s because you’re feeling a little out of place because you’re staying with us, you need to cut the bullshit, we love having you over. At least, I do. I—I really like having you around."

Jaejoong smiles at that. How…thoughtful.

It’s the first time Changmin sees a smile reach Jaejoong’s eyes the whole time they’ve been in Naju. He is content with that for the time being.

 

* * *

 

"I can’t keep up with these festivals anymore. I am exhausted. Are you sure you kids want to stay for the fireworks?" Sungryung gets up from the makeshift picnic spot they have set up in the park nearby the food stalls. She had been going around the whole day, helping out in some of her friends' booth, and then fussing over Changmin’s and Jaejoong’s arrival when they’d asked for the some of the packed food. 

The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventful for Jaejoong and Changmin. At least, Jaejoong had found some comfort in Changmin’s company, and he’s really getting used to it—not that they didn’t hit it off way back in Seoul. 

The sun has already set, and the area has become less busy too, with some family and the older people heading back home.

"We’re fine mom." Changmin looks over to Jaejoong who only nods at him.

"I’ll go ahead then. I’ll watch the fireworks from our porch. Just don’t forget to take home all the food containers after you’re done. I’m only bringing the empty ones with me. Oh and if Yunho shows up, can you whack him for me?" she half jokes with her younger son, she had gone on about what she had called Yunho’s abandonment earlier.It is the last thing she says before she heads back, and Jaejoong and Changmin watch her as she disappears from their view.

"It’s not too late if you want to go home. I mean, like, I know I asked you if you wanted to stick around for the fireworks but...I-if you don’t want to it’s totally fine. I don’t mind it. I mean—"

Jaejoong snickers at Changmin’s rambling. "No, it’s cool. We’re already here, aren’t we? Plus, I haven’t seen fireworks in a while."

Changmin looks at Jaejoong who he now finds to be in a much better mood. He likes to think he had something to do with it. It makes his chest flutter in a way he doesn’t want it to. He tries to calm himself down, sparing Jaejoong a friendly grin. "That’s awesome then."

Jaejoong nods again in agreement as he settles himself more comfortable on the blanket, stretching his legs out.

"You know what would be more awesome though?"

"What?"

"Beer."

Jaejoong laughs. Changmin has got a point. "You know what, I’ll go get us some."

"Really?"

"Yea. Stay there, I’ll be back." 

Jaejoong gets up, leaving Changmin, who lies down on a blanket with a silly grin on his face. He looks up at the stars scattered in the deep sky. Fireworks, beer, and Jaejoong. That sounds just about right.

 

* * *

 

6:07

Yunho clicks his tongue as he looks down at the time on his watch. He didn’t realise that a quick introduction to his former client’s wife would take hours. He should’ve known better, people like him jerk off on small talk and _building connections._ He figures he’s lucky because he was born into one giant web that automatically makes him a centre of what everyone wanted to be associated with, and he sounds like such an asshole about it, but it gets so tedious sometimes. He should get better at making excuses. 

Then again, Jung’s are known for being extremely polite and accommodating outside the boardrooms, it makes up for the kind of douchebag pricks they are when it comes to actual business.

He was supposed to be spending a completely different day. Maybe he could’ve been spending time teasing his little brother about all the food he’s eaten, help out his mom, or maybe he could’ve snuck out with Jaejoong somewhere so they could make out at a nearby creek. Instead he had to pretend to be interested in acquisitions and the stock market, and coo over an unborn child, he couldn’t give less shits about whether it’s a he or a she, and he most definitely did not care to give any suggestions for the name.

He is pissed, which seems to be his default recently when it comes to mingling with his peers from Seoul.

He strides with big steps, hurrying to get back, and he wonders if Jaejoong and the rest are still even there. He wonders if Jaejoong is pissed at him for bailing out, if he’s okay.

Just as he walks through, he sees a familiar figure, walking curiously through the opened booths. There aren’t much of them left since some have packed up early to see the fireworks.

Jaejoong.

He halts his steps and just takes a good look at him. When he was talking earlier, he’d just turned around and he wasn’t there anymore. Jaejoong isn’t the type to stick around. Not when he isn’t interested anymore.

Yunho frowns, he doesn’t like the thought of that, of Jaejoong not being interested. He pushes it to the back of his head and decides to jog towards him. He sneaks from behind and clutches his waist playfully from behind.

"Fuck!" Jaejoong screams, and it’s comedic, how surprised he looked before realising it was him. "Yunho! What the hell!" He’s pissed, but it’s kind of cute.

Sanctuary, Yunho thinks. Quickly enough, his annoyance from the whole afternoon fades, and he’s just glad he’s back with Jaejoong, and he must be staring at him silly because he snaps a finger in front of him to take him out of his daze.

"I said what the hell, Yunho."

"Sorry, I saw you walking down."

"Well, I didn’t, I thought you were a mugger," Maybe Jaejoong was really annoyed, but he takes a sigh and let’s it go, because damn, he liked seeing Yunho’s stupid face.

"Where are you going?"

"Looking for beer." Jaejoong shrugs, calming down from the slight fright he had. "Changmin and I are planning to get drunk while watching the fireworks."

"You were with Changmin the whole time?"

"Yea."

Yunho is relieved to hear that Jaejoong had company. Spending his time with Changmin doesn’t sound so bad.

He’s wondered how he’s been the whole day, but he doesn’t say a thing. He doesn’t know how to let him know that properly.

"Doubt there’s anything around here. The fair is supposed to be family friendly."

"Bummer." 

"There’s a crummy gasoline station nearby though. It’s not much but they have good beer," Yunho moves along expecting Jaejoong to follow him, but he doesn’t. 

He turns back to his still figure, "What?"

"Nothing," Jaejoong says before shaking his head, finally joining him. He really is getting harder to read.

 

* * *

 

Yunho is waiting patiently for his change as the extremely sluggish cashier processes his purchase of a case of beer. Apparently there was a problem with the register, and he would usually be annoyed and demand for better service, but the dude looks tired and he _is_ spending the whole of the festival alone in a dodgy gasoline convenience store that anyone barely walks into. 

He gives him a pass.

The lamp inside the small store is mildly flickering, as Yunho looks over the wide glass window, watching Jaejoong who is waiting for him by the doorway, looking idly at the star filled sky. Yunho swallows, because he looks pretty, even against a nearly dilapidated wall of faded posters, and a malfunctioning yellow florescent light above him.

The walk on their way there mostly consisted of silence, and conversations that didn’t go anywhere. It’s strange. Since when was it so hard to talk to Jaejoong?

Well, since these bizarre feelings for him started creeping up. 

_Are you alright, Jaejoong?_

_Sorry for leaving you earlier, Jaejoong._

_I was thinking about you the whole time._

_God, I haven’t been able to say it but thank you for being here, Jaejoong._

How does he say all of that without looking like an absolute fool?

"Here’s your change," he’s distracted from his thoughts as the money finally gets handed out to him. It’s only then that he realises he probably didn’t even need them, he puts all the coins in a donation box beside the register—the guy manning the store probably takes the money for himself.

Yunho goes outside, and Jaejoong who is leaning against the wall, kicks his foot against it to stand straight up again.

They wordlessly walk up to the street, where there is a stoplight they need to cross. The light is red but there aren’t any cars passing by. They could have easily walked through, but neither of them realises it, their bodies used to following the mechanical signs as they would back in Seoul.

"What’s taking so long?" Jaejoong voices out, he would usually say the same thing back in the city.

The time drags on. They stand there, waiting for the stoplight, suddenly hyperconscious of how their shoulders are barely touching.

Awareness envelopes both of them. Have they ever been together like this, out to buy beer together, walking outside, just the two of them?

It’s gotten a lot colder. That, or it’s the unreasonable nervousness that’s sinking in. Yunho shivers, and so does Jaejoong.

A few more moments pass, time definitely feels longer than it is as they both stare at the unchanging light.

"Had fun with your buddy from Seoul?" Jaejoong speaks again, opening up another conversation, as he rubs a hand on his arm. Yunho doesn’t miss tentativeness in his tone. He thinks maybe he isn’t alone in feeling the way he’s feeling.

"Not a buddy. Former client. He took me to introduce his wife and then asked me to sit with them. It became a thing and I got stuck, he knows my dad very well."

Jaejoong shakes his head at his words, "You don’t need to explain."

Yunho cuts him off. "No, I want to!" He says it a little bit too earnestly, and Jaejoong looks at him questioningly.

"You want to?"

"To explain things," he says, "to you."

Jaejoong looks at the ground.

"And you can like, uh, tell me whatever, like anything you want as well. That still stands, what I said, in bed, if you still remember."

Jaejoong nods. Of course he remembers, and remembering it makes his cheeks warm, he doesn’t know why.

"Your mom was looking for you."

"Oh fuck. Can’t wait to hear from her then." 

Jaejoong laughs at that, and Yunho likes hearing the sound of it.

The stoplight turns green and they cross together. 

This was a familiar road to both of them, they’ve both walked it thousands of times before—it lead to their old school— but never together, and if it wasn’t for the stubborn fluttering in his gut, Yunho would've found it funny, that a decade or so later, they are there.

They walk a little farther down, and another stoplight stops them at their tracks. "I hope my mom hasn’t freaked you out or anything. She’s got no filter." He starts awkwardly again, it’s like he’s forgotten how to converse properly. 

"Yea, but I like that. I think your mom’s cool, and I learned that, apparently, you like staring at me." Jaejoong says it as he naturally does, flirty.

Jaejoong doesn’t know why that makes him smile. A shyness follows him afterwards, and it is something that Yunho is unfamiliar with, and he wants to tease him, but for some reason he finds the side of his ears incredibly warm as well.

Maybe it’s them being around the place they grew up in, maybe it's the memories of being in high school and being clumsy teenaged boys, but there is something in the air that renders them both silent, hearts beating fast and a chill in their skin.

How weird is it to blush over someone you’ve fucked countless times?

"Jaejoong," he starts without really thinking about what he wants to say. Maybe he wants to make a joke about how ridiculous he’s feeling, and maybe he can ask if Jaejoong feels it too, because it’s getting absurd.

Or maybe he keeps that a secret to himself, and maybe he just tells him he’s glad he’s there with him in Naju. He didn’t get to say it when they arrived yesterday, or earlier that morning, he didn’t get to say it before some irrelevant client took him away. He’s been wanting to say it. Say it. Now. Maybe it’s perfect, "Hey, I—"

He begins, and Jaejoong probably knows he’s about to say something important because he looks at him with waiting eyes.

Why is it so hard to say?

1

2

3

Nothing comes out of him, and oddly enough it’s like Jaejoong understood as he turns away and looks at the light again.

It turns green and they cross, and maybe his unspoken words sparked some weariness between them because Jaejoong feels a little bit more recluse.

Yunho doesn’t know why. What had he expected?

They are on their third light when Jaejoong starts growing a little impatient. The bizarre feeling in his gut doesn’t mix well with standing still, with Yunho so close to him.

"There are no cars, let’s cross."

"No. Wait." 

"Why not? There are no fucking cars." Jaejoong says half of him teasing him for his silliness, and another half just wanting to get back, because being with Yunho like this was starting to become unbearable.

When Yunho doesn’t give him a proper reason he starts to move forward, but Yunho stops him, because he’s noticed it too, much earlier, that they could always just cross, but he didn’t say a thing because he wants more time with him, the way they are now.

"What?" Jaejoong lets out a small laugh, "Afraid to break the law?" He moves to take another step forward, but Yunho grabs his arm with a free hand.

"It’s better to wait."

"You’re not making sense. Come on, let’s cross."

"Let’s not."

"Why?"

Yunho knows he doesn’t have a good reason at all, instead he just pulls him close, that he lands on his chest. "So I can do this," maybe he’s not good with saying words with his mouth, but he can definitely do other things better. He bends down a little slowly to let Jaejoong back off if he wanted to, but he doesn’t.

It surprises Jaejoong at first but he falls into it, he’s got no other choice anyway, not when Yunho acts like this. 

It doesn’t take long before he decides that Yunho was right, it is better to wait. Their lips are soft against each other, they part for a little bit, before going back again, just soft and snug to warm them on the cold night. Yunho smiles against him, that’s more like it. It feels familiar, it feels right, and it’s what takes him to let go of any of the ridiculous nervousness he had earlier. Jaejoong was right there, kissing him, everything was alright.

They let go just in time for the stoplight to turn green. Jaejoong is dumbfounded because that was…romantic, and they’re not romantic.

Before he puts any more thought into it, Yunho walks ahead, turning to him while moving backwards with a boyish grin.

"Come on, I thought you wanted to cross," one kiss from him and he’s back to being the cocky little shit that he is. Jaejoong rolls his eyes, but follows him immediately, he’s being easy, but since when did he care about being easy? He’s already begged for his cock on the day they met.

Why would he care about what Yunho thinks about him now, under the moonlight, between soft kisses, in a street they’ve both known from when they were young?

There is another crossing ahead of them, with another stoplight, and Yunho does it again, bending down his head to Jaejoong, this time he wraps his free arm around his waist and holds him closer. 

Yunho’s hand is light against him, his lips moving steadily against him, not in a calculating way that he usually does it when he’s teasing, no, he does it as if he’s savouring every second. It reminds Jaejoong of the way he touched him the night he came home from Shanghai. He’s gentle and caring, and somehow it feels more intense than the passion riddled bruised contact they’ve previously shared.

They do it again on the next stoplight. 

And the next.

And the next one after that.

Sometimes it’s a simple peck, sometimes it’s small pepper kisses, sometimes Jaejoong is naughty and he slips in a little bit of tongue, and sometimes Yunho obliges him and they make out, careless because they know no one is watching them in the empty streets.

Not that they would probably even care to notice if there was anyone else around, both of them carried away and trapped in their own little bubble.

Jaejoong is really starting to like stoplights now. They’ve both lost count over how many they’ve passed by. They’ve made unnecessary turns and crossings anyway, both just liking the little game they’re playing.

They stop at one particular crossing, and before Yunho dives in to kiss him, he finally finds it in him to speak up, "Hey," he says, his forehead almost touching Jaejoong’s.

"I swear, if you’re going to waste your time stuttering again instead of just kissing me—"

Yunho feigns a scoff, "No, I just—" 

"You’re stuttering again."

"I—I didn’t get to say it but, thank you, for coming here with me," he breathes out and he can feel it against his skin. He sounds a little panicked, a small part of him reverting to the nervous mess he was earlier, but his returned confidence doesn’t fail him.

Jaejoong doesn’t know why that makes him smile.

"That’s it?” Jaejoong teases him.

"Yea, but I really mean it. Like how I meant it when I said I needed you. I never asked you how you felt about it, and I didn’t realise it until this morning that maybe I should’ve asked—"

Jaejoong doesn’t know how to respond to that, and if his heart could beat any louder it would, and it scares him a little, how Yunho is making him feel with just a few kisses and a few words, so instead of figuring it out, he closes their distance. "You’re wasting time."

Yunho doesn’t seem to mind it. They kiss, and this time Yunho deepens it, and they both stay that way. 

When Jaejoong opens his eyes, a tiny little peep, and he sees the stoplight turn green, his eyes just flutter shut as he ignores it. He doesn’t let Yunho know.

They could stay the way they are a little bit longer, because finally, for the whole time since he’s arrived back in Naju, a part of him doesn’t mind spending an extra second there. Yunho is always a damn good distraction.

 

* * *

 

There is a collective awe in the audience when the first bud of fireworks explode in the air. The colour of glowing pink and violet sprinkles through the otherwise black night sky, and it’s perfect because there are no strong winds or big skyscrapers or towers to obstruct the view. Everyone seems to be enjoying.

Almost everyone.

Changmin is not watching at all, as he looks around to see if Jaejoong has made his way back, but he’s not there and he’s getting a little worried. He would call if he hadn’t realised that Jaejoong’s phone was lying on the blanket. 

He sighs, and tries to look up at the sky, two more explode up in the air, and more fabulous colours litter his view. There are a few ooh’s and aahh’s around him.

He tries to enjoy it, blocking out his feeling of unsettledness. Naju is a small town, Jaejoong probably knows his way around. Maybe he’s just out taking a smoke, maybe he came across someone he knew. It’s not like they were exclusively hanging out with each other for the day, he shouldn’t hog the man.

He relaxes himself, taking in the view, convincing himself that everything was fine. He had the whole day with Jaejoong, and he didn’t have to be that clingy loser who wants to hang out with the cool kid all the time.

The fireworks were anything spectacular. Although, he thinks, it would really have been great if he had a cold beer, or Jaejoong next to him. 

Fuck, it would really have been great if he had Jaejoong next to him.

He breathes out heavily, taking another glance around him, when he sees a figure coming towards him. He recognises it.

Finally. Jaejoong’s there, he smiles at him, like an idiot because he knows he can’t even see his facial expression in the dark.

…but his smile immediately dies when he sees that his brother is following close by with a case of beer in his hands.

He’s got Jaejoong and the beer, and now, Yunho as well.

He collapses back down on the blanket and closes his eyes. He is getting annoyed for no rational reason at all.

Of course, of fucking course.

He feels a weight beside him, and someone flicks his nose. It’s his brother, but he ignores him.

"Sorry, the beer was hard to find," Changmin looks up at Jaejoong to find unmistakeable make-out lips, and that nails the coffin on ruining his entire mood. 

"It’s fine," he says in a low agitated voice, he does get up however, to grab a beer, opening it up and chugging half of it down in one swig.

"No toast?" Yunho asks as he gets one for himself, and passes another to Jaejoong, taking a seat beside him.

"Not in the mood, Yunho." As the fireworks continue to keep exploding into the sky, he simple leans back, drinking even more fervently.

He doesn’t give a shit about the fireworks anymore, but looking up is a lot better than seeing Yunho’s dumb face.

His mood is sour.

It doesn’t take much before he gives up resisting, and he looks over to his side and sees Jaejoong and Yunho sitting beside each other, there was a respectable distance between them, but he still thinks it’s too close. 

At least the two of them are clearly enjoying the show.

He heaves a sigh, and Jaejoong seems to notice it because he turns to him, and gives him a little air toast. "It is more awesome with beer."

Changmin gives him a wide smile. Just then, he feels way better, and he figures he really is screwed.

 

* * *

 

Jaejoong shivers against the covers as he starts to wake up. Did anyone turn the temperature down? He’s feeling a little chilly. Why is it so chilly?

He yawns, still more asleep than he is awake. He opens his heavy eyes. This time he knows where he is. He turns his body to the side so he’s facing the ceiling, a ceiling that has a crack and stickers of planets littered over it, it’s a ceiling that’s gotten a little bit more familiar to him.

He hugs his own arms, he’s still wearing the sweater from yesterday, today, just like the day before, he’d been too tired to change.

He remembers being carried to Yunho’s room and nothing much after that.

It’s the second night they’ve had without having sex.

It doesn’t feel as strange.

He turns to his side and Yunho is facing away from him, curled up, snoring lightly in his sleep. He frowns. It’s cold because Yunho is too far from him. 

He doesn’t really need anything, he just wants to feel warm.

Yunho needs to be closer, so much more closer.

He yawns again, his eyelids still feels heavy.

More sleep sounds good too.

He snuggles against Yunho’s back, spooning him. Yunho’s steady breaths lull him back to sleep.

If he was being honest, Naju didn’t feel much like home to him. It never did, even when he was younger. 

And yet he’s there, falling in deep slumber and it’s the most peaceful sleep he’s had in a long time.

He’s in Jung Yunho’s bed. Jung Yunho who was the star of the football team, Jung Yunho who he used to look at from the other side of the class, Jung Yunho whom he’d never expected to meet ever again after stepping a foot out of Naju. It was mind-blowing to think about, scary even.

And yet they fit together in that bed, in Yunho’s childhood room, 300 kilometres away from Seoul. 

That particular morning Jaejoong didn’t feel like running back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO. OMG. I FINALLY UPDATED. It took so long. Chapter 9 has been written since last year, but revising is killing me! ;; The official version of this, which I have posted, is Chapter 9 ver 7, and I still have about 3 copies of 9.5’s somewhere in my folders. This chapter went through a lot. 
> 
> To be completely honest, I’m still not sure about how this turned out. It’s by no means perfect at all, but I figured that it’s probably the best I can ever draft up, so sorry, I am no writing expert and I hope it’s still good enough for you guys. 
> 
> That being said, please please please do comment. I would love to hear your thoughts, and believe it or not, it really does help with my writing. I love reading what everyone has to say, whether it’s positive or negative! I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent on this, but just knowing that there are people who are interested in it makes up for all that. 
> 
> Thank you thank youuu!  
> And thank you to @kimjaejiggae who helped beta-ing all of the versions. Sorry if I sound cranky sometimes. Also, it's totally her fault I didn't update earlier because she kept spazzing about it on my DM's instead of answering a plot question. HAHAHAHA. JK. THANK YOU. 
> 
> PS: I'm thinking about posting a/some deleted scene(s), but hmmm, I guess, I'll check the comments and how many of ya'll want it. XD


	10. All I Have To Do Is Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaejoong looks back to him and sees his face. Yunho’s hair is a little frazzled, dark rings around his eyes, he looks just a little bit older against the unflattering light of the screen, and still, Jaejoong thinks he looks like salvation.

The night is deep, and there is a heavy silence plaguing the living room. To his left is an old fashioned wall clock that has its hands stuck exactly at 11:30. There is an oak shelf filled with a mixture of books and records right beside it. The television is open but there is no sound, the plain burgundy couch in front of it is pristine, no sign of anyone sitting on it, or touching it at all. There is brown mug of hot coffee on the living room table that rests in the middle of the space.

Jaejoong knows this place.

He looks around and he’s confused.

He doesn’t know how he got there. 

He stares at the unmoving clock. He notices a weight over his arm, he lifts his hand and he realises that he is carrying an old tattered gym bag. He recognises it, it’s from his high school. It has his name tag, blurred and clumsily written and all.

Then he hears it, the ticking sound of the wall clock breaking the absolute silence, he glances at it again. The seconds hand starts to move, and he turns to the direction of a record player that starts to play Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’. The record is scratchy, slightly run-down from being played too many times.

It’s a song he hasn’t heard in over a decade.

There is a loud bang of a shutting door from the upstairs. His shoulders hikes up from the startling sound.

He swallows.

He doesn’t know what’s happening, but he knows he should leave. He tightens his hold on the gym bag and prepares to run. 

There is a roaring voice that comes from the second floor.

"Jaejoong!"

It’s a deep, angry voice. He freezes, coldness running running down until the tip of his toes. He remembers, he remembers all of it and he doesn’t need to relive it again.

"Jaejoong, where the hell do you think you’re going?"

It’s getting closer, and he finally finds it in him to move, turning around, as he hears the thundering footsteps descending down the stairs. He’s coming. 

He’s coming for him.

Run, Jaejoong. Run. Get out.

Get out. He knows he should leave, sprint until he’s far away, but for some reason, his feet are planted on the ground. Something is paralysing him, fear maybe, or maybe disbelief.

"Jaejoong!"

"Jaejoong, get back here!" 

Move. Move!

As the voice gets louder, he finds control in himself. Finally, his legs start moving. There are a few more words that blast through the upper corridors but he doesn’t understand.

He doesn’t wait to listen, and he swiftly grabs onto the doorknob but even before he does, he feels a brash force around the back of his collar, causing him to fall back and hit the floor.

He feels no pain, just wind knocked out of his lungs upon impact. He stayed there, paralyzed again, as if forgetting how to move his open body.

Silence again, for a while. He stays, maybe he should stay down, he thinks of giving up, but he knows he has to run.

He feels it again, the way his lungs are constricting against his chest, like he’s fallen a second time

He can’t breathe. But he needs to go, suck up some oxygen and go. He sits back up to catch some air. He needs air.

He takes a deep open mouth gasp, and opens his eyes. He is transported to a different place when he regains his vision, and an empty dark ceiling meets his vision.

The living room is gone. There is no door in front of him. No loud voice. He is suddenly back in Yunho’s room.

A dream. 

It was all one fucking dream.

He’s used to not being able to sleep well at night, but he’s never had a dream like that in a long time.

Shit.

There is a faint light at the corner of his eyes and he turns his head slightly to his left to find Yunho fully awake. He has a laptop sitting on his lap, he’s working late again. It’s become a frequent thing in the last few days.

He figures that the other man hasn’t even noticed that he’s awake. He can hear him tapping his fingers on the keyboard, irregular rhythms. Yunho has a habit of doing that when he’s stressed.

Jaejoong turns his head back, he stays there, staring up at the ceiling, and then he attempts to close his eyes.

He tries, one minute passes, and then two, and then three, and then he realises his brain wasn’t going to just let him drift back to sleep again. 

He sits up, he shivers a little bit as his sweaty skin comes in contact with the air when the sheets fall onto his waist. He’s not wearing anything on top, he rarely does when he’s in bed. 

It’s only then that Yunho realises he has woken up.

"Hey," Yunho says faintly, eyes temporarily moving away from the screen. "What’s up?" There is a hint of concern, but only because he probably thinks he had woken up his companion with the faint but incessant noises he’s been making.

Jaejoong looks back to him and sees his face. Yunho’s hair is a little frazzled, dark rings around his eyes, he looks just a little bit older against the unflattering light of the screen, and still, Jaejoong thinks he looks like salvation.

Yunho is good at that, saving him, and making him forget. His gaze immediately darkens.

Jaejoong doesn’t answer him at all, he doesn’t say a word as he shifts himself over to Yunho to catch his mouth. He doesn’t start it off with anything slow, nor gentle, his lips clashing hard immediately against Yunho’s. 

"Jae—" the other man doesn’t get the chance to talk, expertly moving the laptop to the side table. It’s not like frisky sex in the middle of the night was anything new.

He lets Jaejoong take control, nipping away at his lips, tongue searching his mouth as he falls astride him, hands digging themselves against his shoulders.

When they break away, Yunho sees the garish lust in Jaejoong’s eyes, and he simply cannot do anything but indulge him. He kisses him back with the same fervour, taking over as he rolls Jaejoong on his back.

"What’s gotten into you?" Yunho searches him. This usually happens back in Seoul, when Jaejoong has had a bad day, when he can’t sleep because his mind is noisy with anxiety, but it’s not like that here in Naju, is it?

Yunho doesn’t have a chance to figure it out as Jaejoong only whines needfully, lifting his hips up to brush against his, and Yunho just pushes his thoughts away. Whatever it is, he doesn’t mind being a slave to Jaejoong’s lust.

Yunho moves down, knowing oh so well, the way Jaejoong’s body is reacting. He wants to be touched and sated, and that’s exactly what Yunho plans on doing. He bites on his clavicle, moving down to suck on his left nipple once or twice, while his other hand pinches the right.

He doesn’t linger for too long, moving further down, his tongue running through his abdomen, taking a dip at his belly button. Jaejoong grabs his hair when he does so, the contact causing his toes to curl, and Yunho smirks at this. He’ll never stop feeling cocky about the way he can make Jaejoong’s body react so sensitively.

It doesn’t take long before he reaches his prize. He pulls loose the string on his sweatpants before pulling Jaejoong’s waistband down. He knows he’s not wearing underwear. Jaejoong is already half hard, and he makes sure to change that as he takes him into his mouth.

The grip on his hair tightens, and Jaejoong gives off a deep moan. It doesn’t take long until he’s fully hard against his mouth. 

Jaejoong hooks his leg on Yunho’s shoulder as he bobs his head into his cock. Quick movements, sucking him in and occasionally licking at his tips. He pulls no punches, deciding that he shouldn’t tease the other man, his goal is to drive him insane, nothing more.

Jaejoong starts to thrust his hips against his mouth, and that’s when Yunho knows he’s close. He holds him down, pumping his cock with his hand and focuses on the most sensitive part of his dick, licking around his tip and it doesn’t even take another minute before Jaejoong comes in his mouth.

Yunho drinks it all in, and he feels Jaejoong’s breaths, still unstable from his high. He wipes some cum off the side of his lips, before he makes his way back up, making a quick lick at his belly button, pinching playfully at his nipple when he passes.

"Ssh. You’re good, Jae. You’re good," Yunho says as he pushes Jaejoong’s hair back from his forehead, watching Jaejoong’s overheated face as he rides down from the high of his orgasm.

God he loves seeing that face.

Yunho smiles at him, that gentle smile, and it’s reassuring and sweet. He dips down to kiss him gently on his forehead, his nose and then lightly on his lips, ushering him to calm down, but Jaejoong isn’t sure if that’s what he wants. 

It’s not over, is it?

Jaejoong wants more, he wants Yunho to quite literally fuck his nightmare away. He needs more, he needs to be spent, washed away in tiredness and bliss so he can fall asleep without a thought circling his head.

He chases his lips with his own, pulling him down for another rough kiss. "More. Come on. I still want you to fuck me," he whispers laced with lust, right onto his ear. 

Yunho just kisses him lightly on his neck, and Jaejoong can feel his smile against his skin."It’s two in the morning, babe."

That hasn’t stopped them before.

He isn’t in the mood for Yunho’s teasing.

Jaejoong doesn’t respond to him, a hand simply snaking down to the waistband of Yunho’s pyjamas.

Yunho stops him, holding onto his wrist, and kissing the spot on his neck gently again. 

"Jaejoong, fuck," he takes the wandering hand and puts it to his lips, planting his lips on it as well, the same gentle way, and somehow it starts to annoy Jaejoong. 

"Yunho!"

"Be patient. I promise, sex, first thing in the morning, we can stay in bed until noon."

Jaejoong closes his eyes in frustration. No, he can’t be patient. He needs Yunho to fix him, now, the same way he’s fixed him so many nights back in Seoul. 

Yunho doesn’t get it. 

Why the hell doesn’t Yunho get it?

"I just need to send these revision before the client meeting tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, promise." Yunho kisses his forehead one last time before shifting over to his side of the bed.

Jaejoong frowns.

Oh.

He gets it now. 

Okay. Work.

He turns over to the other side, pulling the covers back. He starts hearing the clicks again, it’s not long before Yunho starts tapping his fingers.

Jaejoong closes his eyes and tries to fall asleep. He can’t.

 

* * *

 

The largest space in the Shim household, although not really large at all, was the kitchen. It had a wooden island, that had several floral paintings of Sungryung herself. There were four mix matched chairs around it, doubling it as the dining table. Here and there, on the walls, the counter tops, and drawers, were remnants of crayons and acrylic paint by her young boys.

On the right side of the room, there is a row of countertops, a dishwasher, a stove and a bright yellow vintage fridge with pictures hung by city magnets. All of them were obviously used quite frequently, as the wear can be seen in the appliances, but they are kept and still well loved by the owner. 

Across the cooking area are cushioned ledges, enough to sit on. It’s joined to a wall that has a large window overlooking the small, but well maintained garden outside.

At 8:30 in the morning, it is not at all busy. There is no one there, except Jaejoong who yawns against his coffee cup. He’s sleepy and tired from not getting much sleep the night before.

Just then, Sungryung walks in with a bag of produce in her hands. He’s a little bit surprised, not thinking that she had woken up so early just to pick up groceries. 

He is impressed at how Sungryung always manages to bring in fresh and organic food. The woman personally makes an effort get everything at the local market, and Jaejoong wonders what she’d think if she finds out both his sons order unhealthy, manufactured take out most of the time.

He hops off his chair to help her with carrying the groceries, taking both bags and laying them up the counter.

"You’re up early," she voices out her observation, smiling at him to thank him for helping.

"Couldn’t sleep."

Concern sullies her face as she is able to get a better view of him. "You don’t look so good. Is something the matter?"

"No. No, I’m okay."

It’s not a lie. He’s not great, but he’s okay. He is a lot better than how he was after his dream. It is what it is, just a dream, and he tries not to think about it.

Although, a good distraction would be nice. Yunho could’ve taken care of that. He guesses maybe a blowjob was better than nothing. He did promise morning sex, but Jaejoong doubts they’d get to that after knowing how late he’d stayed up working.

It’s not like he expects Yunho to fuck him every night, but Jaejoong has always had a proclivity to sex, and Yunho has gotten a lot busier over the past few days. He doesn’t begrudge him for it, i f Yunho wants to slave away with work, then that’s his problem, but it would’ve been a lot easier if he were in Seoul, call someone, fuck, rinse and repeat. Naju limits his options, it limits his options to one, and if that one option isn’t interested, then all he has are blue balls to show for it.

"Everything good with you and Yunho then?" Sungryung asks him again. He could swear that she has mind reading abilities. That, or deep motherly wisdom. 

He likes Sungryung, he really does, but he still isn’t used to her questions sometimes. Jaejoong doesn’t mind it when she suddenly brings up her homemade lube during dinner, or when she talks about her wild adventures back when she waitressed in East Hollywood, but he doesn’t think he could ever get used to being asked questions about him and Yunho. 

Hell, he doesn’t even like it when Heechul asks about them, and he’s his best friend.

"Mom, can you stop asking Jaejoong weird questions?" It is Yunho who had just come down sporting bedroom hair and morning scruff.

"What? If you two are going to be sleeping in one room, under my roof, then I should at least know if there are any problems in the house," Yunho only rolls his eyes at his mother, knowing that she is teasing.

H e naturally makes his way to hug Jaejoong from behind, resting his head on his shoulder. Jaejoong can’t pin point when this has started happening. The night after the fireworks maybe? Or even earlier, or maybe days later. 

Since when has Yunho had the boldness to carelessly do that? And since when has Jaejoong allowed him to do so?

As much as Jaejoong thinks, Yunho’s gotten less interested in sex lately, he has become increasingly tactile. He always has been tactile in bed, not like this, so undeniably...affectionate. 

Jaejoong hasn’t missed it, the way Yunho always finds his thighs or how he kisses him on the cheek as if to greet him when he catches sight of him, or the way they have to have some sort of physical contact whenever they’re in close proximity.

Jaejoong still flinches at it sometimes. Like how he did just then. 

He hears Yunho heave a sigh at his reaction, and he doesn’t quite know what it means, but he remains unmoving until he relaxes, and just like clockwork, he melts onto him, leaning back against his wider frame.

Maybe it is possible to get used to it, because even though Jaejoong doesn’t admit it to himself, he has gotten to a point where any contact with Yunho is starting to feel as consoling as fucking him.

"I woke up and you weren’t in bed," Yunho whispers it to him, keen on not letting his mother hear, "Morning sex was the plan, wasn’t it?" 

"Well, at least it’s nice to know you’re trying to satisfy Jaejoong sexually." Sungryung interjects. His whisper was not discreet enough.

She is half teasing, but she eyes Jaejoong who only scrunches his nose at her words. It prompts her to prod even more. "He does satisfy you, right?" This time it is directed at Jaejoong.

"Mom!" Yunho groans, "Stop asking those things!"

This was the kind of banter Jaejoong didn’t mind from her. He lightens up a little bit, especially from seeing Yunho flustered and annoyed. He finds it hilarious, and Sungryung smiles at the small chuckle that comes out of Jaejoong.

"Stop asking what?" Changmin also enters the kitchen sleepy eyed, and just like Yunho, with scruff around his jaw. He looks over at Yunho, not really welcoming of the sight of his brother draped all over Jaejoong.

"If your brother is satisfying Jaejoong…sexually."

Changmin pauses his stride towards the kitchen, giving a disgusted look to his mom. He turns to Yunho completely, "Don’t answer that while I’m here. I don’t need to hear this. Nope. No way. It’s too early for this, I’m going back to bed" He does a u-turn and leaves the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

Changmin is sitting on the floor trying to read an old english comic he’d found tucked away under his bed. It was actually Yunho’s, but he’d taken it upon himself to _keep it safe._

He hears a knock on the door, and his eyes move away from the panels of the book, wondering if maybe he’d just imagined the sound. Then he hears it again. The door gently opens and he sees Jaejoong peaking in. He sits up a little bit straighter as he enters his room. "You got weed?" Changmin notices the tinge of exasperation in his voice.

"Where’s Yunho?" He asks. He and Jaejoong have been hanging out more frequently in the past few days, but if all the icky lovey-doveyness he saw earlier in the morning was anything to go by, he’d think he and Yunho were having a go at it somewhere, doing whatever it is that couples do. He didn't expect the man to be knocking in his room.

Jaejoong shrugs. "Urgent call from Seoul, apparently. Killed both our boners."

He didn’t need to hear that, but he lets it slide. Changmin rolls his eyes, his brother is the dumbest man on the planet, "You know he’d stop for you if you asked him to, right?"

Jaejoong shakes his head. He’s not sure if Changmin is right about that. "No. I mean, it doesn’t really bother me. If he chooses work over my ass, that’s his loss," Jaejoong jokes. "So, weed?"

Changmin makes a move to get up to the bedside table to pick up his stash, but something else crosses his mind. He looks up at Jaejoong and the other watches a big grin break into his face. "I know something better than weed."

Jaejoong tilts his head in confusion. Did Changmin just propose taking harder drugs?

Changmin hurriedly gets up, and puts on a hoodie. He grabs his hand and pulls him out of the room.

It doesn’t even take them thirty minutes, and Jaejoong is staring at Changmin who is biting down on a giant whopper burger, his face expressing a sort of bliss Jaejoong’s never seen before.

Jaejoong had expected that Changmin would take him into some sketchy alley to meet some small town dealer and get high on acid at some old abandoned building, but no, they’re at a Burger King, and apparently, the thing that’s better than getting high on weed is a mouthful of unhealthy, greasy, sodium induced fast food. Jaejoong thinks, it’s not bad at all, not when he finds it astoundingly amusing to see Changmin enjoy himself with food.

"I fucking swear, I love my mom’s cooking. I swear I do, but sometimes, this shit is the best. Don’t tell her."

"You can smoke weed at home, but you have to keep Burger King a secret?"

Changmin looks at him like he’s insane. "Mom hates fast food, she says it’s not only junk, the industry is also one of the biggest most dangerous capitalist empires," he says as he takes another bite, stuffs fries in his face and takes a sip from his soda.

Changmin notices the silly look Jaejoong has on his face and he slows down with the ravenous eating. He feels his heat warm up a little bit from embarrassment, "What are you staring at?"

"You’re cute" Jaejoong says, reaching out to swipe off a bit of sauce that strayed to his chin with his thumb and then licking it clean. 

Something stirs in Changmin, and it must’ve been obvious in his face. "What?" Jaejoong asks.

"Nothing," he shakes away whatever fluttering he feels in his stomach. "Aren’t you going to eat that?" he eyes the untouched food on the tray across him. 

Jaejoong lets out a laugh before digging into his own burger. Changmin is glad he's managed to make him laugh like that. It never gets old.

It doesn’t take long for them to finish eating. Changmin had managed to get himself another set before Jaejoong even finished his one meal.

They sit in there for a while, Jaejoong watching the very few cars pass by the near empty road. Changmin thinks he looks gorgeous, plain and even with just a passive expression resting on his face. He doesn’t know how his brother could choose work over him.

It pisses Changmin off to no end. God if he had, if he had Jaejoong the way Yunho did, he’d waste no second of it.

If only.

He shakes his head, not wanting his train of thoughts to go down that route.

"What’s so interesting about the empty road?" He says it to divert his own attention, and to get Jaejoong out of his mediative state, because even though he thinks he looks gorgeous the way he is, he recognises his listlessness. He wants to distract him from it.

Jaejoong pauses for a bit at Changmin’s question, deciding on how to respond. He hadn’t realised he’s been staring out. "Nothing. My head was floating elsewhere."

"Oh really? Where?"

He’s not really in the disposition to share his contemplativeness with Changmin, not when the guy has done nothing but cheer him up. He thinks Changmin deserves better than to get caught up in whatever messy thoughts he has. He makes a resolve to tease him instead. "Would you believe me if I said it was you?" Jaejoong smirks at him and Changmin swallows.

He blushes and he thinks Jaejoong should stop being so flirty sometimes. Just sometimes. He doesn’t answer him because he doesn’t know how to.

“What? No response? How are you going to steal that Victoria girl if you don’t flirt back?”

Victoria. Changmin hasn’t even thought about her in a while.

 

* * *

 

It’s already mid afternoon when Changmin and Jaejoong arrive back home, taking detours around town, smoking a little bit of weed along the way.

Yunho is still on the phone and his laptop is settled on his lap, Jaejoong decides not to bother him. 

He’s preoccupying himself, looking at the cacti lined up over the window pane, all in different shapes and sizes, a label on each pot. He has been curious about them, taking a glance or two in the past few days. It’s only then that he realises that the labels are of familiar names, he figures it’s the names of famous rock stars.

"What are you looking at?" Changmin asks, returning from fetching some old records to listen to.

"These are adorable. Your mom named the cacti after rock stars?"

He hears Changmin’s tongue click, "It’s not that cute, he named them after their dicks. See that small stumpy one? It's Mick, and I’m sure you know the rumours"

Jaejoong turns to Changmin in disbelief.

"Yes, and they’re all true," just then Sungryung walks in on them, bright as always.

Jaejoong’s jaw hangs, he is not one to get scandalised, "You—you’ve seen Mick Jagger’s penis?"

Sungryung nods with a smile on her face.

Changmin groans, "Oh my god. No. Please. Jaejoong, don’t ask her about her track record."

"How did you even—?" Jaejoong is speechless. 

"It was the 70’s, and I made it a personal goal to fly to England and later on, in the US, I ended up knowing some people. There weren’t a lot of Korean girls around them back then and I was a rare bird and you know, curiosity goes a long way," she shrugs with a mix of humour in her expression.

Jaejoong jaws hang wide open, as she continues to tell her story.

The next thing he knows, he’s in the the living room couch. There are old photo albums and concert tickets everywhere. Sungryung is telling a hilarious story about that one time she hitch hiked all the way to New York city for a music festival, only to find out that she was in Pink Floyd’s roadies’ bus.

Changmin holds out another album, one filled with their photos as kids, "Holy shit, is this that one time Yunho peed his pants?" Jaejoong’s never noticed how handsome Changmin is when he grins.

For what it’s worth, Changmin really does a good job at making him feel comfortable and at home, and dare he say, he has a special skill of making him forget about his unwanted thoughts.

 

* * *

 

"No. No, we made those clear in our first few meetings with the client—yes…exactly. Can’t you fix that yourself for godsakes? No. I’m not hearing any of it. Fix this, and don’t get back to me until you do." 

Yunho puts the phone down and pinches the bridge of his nose. He stares at his laptop and he has twenty more pages of revisions to go through. He doesn’t know why his staff back in Seoul is having such a hard time without him. He at least hopes his father realises how important he is in this whole ordeal.  So much for having time off. He’d known it from the start, his father should’ve just let him continue leading the case.

He feels a headache coming up, he should go down to grab some sort of pain reliever before it turns into a full blown migraine. He gets up from the desk in his room. He has a bunch of memories studying there for finals or sitting until dawn to finish his homework, he didn’t think that he’d be in his adulthood doing work there too.

He glances at the window, the sun has already gone down. He hadn’t noticed the time at all. Fuck. Getting buried in work when he's miles away from Seoul is a drag.

To think he was supposed to have a fuckathon with Jaejoong earlier that day. He sighs to himself just thinking about it.

Not catching a break comes with the description of being Jung Woosung’s son. It’s frustrating, but he doesn’t know how else to go about it.

He didn’t use to be like this.

Yunho makes it downstairs, and immediately he hears the familiar laughter of his younger brother. There is a luminous glow from the television in the living room, and he heads towards that direction.

He immediately sees Changmin and Jaejoong hunched together, a photo in between them. Changmin points something out and it makes Jaejoong chuckle soundlessly. He likes that.

Yunho leans on the door pane just watching his brother and Jaejoong. He’s had a pretty rough day but seeing them like that gives him a sense of relief. At least the two of them were having a great time, and he finds comfort knowing that. He likes that Changmin and Jaejoong get along well. 

"You joining us? Godfather movie marathon." Yunho almost jumps at his mother’s voice as she passes him from behind, holding a bowl of popcorn. He doesn’t move from where he is yet, watching her place the bowl on Changmin’s lap. She settles down on the lounge chair, giving him a look. _Come on, get your ass here,_ he reads it in her eyes and he can almost hear her voice in his mind.

Jaejoong looks over to Yunho and gives him something that resembles to a smile, a little hopeful invitation. 

He frowns at what he's about to say.

He would love nothing else but to sit down and watch a movie with Jaejoong and his family, but he doesn’t get past the thought of all the page he has waiting to be revised.

"Nah. Sorry, I still have a bunch of things to finish." The disapproving look from his mother doesn’t surprise Yunho. It’s not like he wants to say no.

He mouths another ‘Sorry’ to Jaejoong who feigns a nod telling him it’s alright.

Changmin doesn’t miss it though, the look of disappointment in Jaejoong’s expression as Yunho declines. He’s sure his brother saw it to, the way Jaejoong’s face lit up at him. Frustration bubbles in him. Is it really that easy for his brother to deny him like that? Hadn’t he realised that that Jaejoong would want nothing more than for him to be there? 

Yunho is an idiot, and it is unfair that he can just do that.

He’d spent the whole with Jaejoong, and sure they had a great time, but even then he knows the other man would rather be with him.

Changmin is unable to hold himself. When his brother leaves, he excuses himself, lying about wanting to grab something from his room. He  heads to Yunho, catching him just before he settles back in his desk.

He’s a little breathless, from taking quick annoyed paces up the stairs.

"Changmin?" Yunho is surprised to see him there, more-so because the scowl marring his face. 

"You know you’re being stupid right?" 

Immediately, Yunho gets exactly what Changmin means, because he knows. He knows he’s being stupid.

He caught it too, Jaejoong’s expression. He’s annoyed with himself as well.

"I know. I know that," he replies and it’s not exactly what Changmin was expecting to hear, but it doesn’t make him less irked.

"Then what are you doing here?"

Yunho is making no sense at all, and he tries to understand, and convince himself that his brother is not a selfish asshole who repeatedly keeps Jaejoong hanging on a whim.

"I can’t just leave all this." Yunho is in defeat as he points at his work table, and he just hopes Changmin understands.

He doesn’t.

Changmin doesn’t even bother replying to him before heading back down stairs. Yunho is left alone, rubbing a palm down his face.

That headache catches up to him, he realises he’d forgotten to even take the medicine from the kitchen.

He doesn’t want to go downstairs, not when everyone is probably upset over him, although he’s used to this side of his family not understanding.

He goes to his luggage, he knows he has some pills in there. He decides on some Vicodin, he hasn’t had any in a while. Even then, he pops two in his mouth, before heading to his bathroom sink to down it with water from the faucet.

His mind gets fuzzy when he takes it, but he’s stressed, in pain, and he does need to relax.

He splashes some cold water on his face and looks at the mirror. There’s a photo of him tucked in the corner. 8 year old Yunho holding up two large fish they’d caught in the lake. For some time it had been his most prized achievement. He was so young and carefree.  He looks at himself for a while, and sees what the years have done on him. He’s no longer that bright eyed kid in the picture, "Where did you go?" he whispers to his reflection before he dumps water on his face again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! OMGGG. Late update!  
> It's been over a month?
> 
> I'm sorry to keep everyone waiting.
> 
> BUT OH MY GOD. It's getting complicated, isn't it? Everyone's issues are just popping out like mushrooms.  
> As usual, please tell me what you think!
> 
> PS: I tweeted this but, the offer still stands, if this gets to 25 comments, I'll post a deleted scene. ;p


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